What is Council Tax?

Council tax is composed of revenues for Norfolk County Council, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk, North Norfolk District council and Town and Parish Councils. See our How are revenues spent on local services? page for more details of how these are distributed and spent on services.

The tax is based on eight property "bands". Generally, the higher the capital value of your home, the higher the tax you pay. See our How much is my council tax? page for more details on banding.

Who should pay council tax

Council tax has to be paid on every property that is not exempt. See our ‘reducing your council tax’ page for more details.

Every council tax bill is addressed to the person/s that the Council considers liable to pay it, according to the order of priority or ‘hierarchy’ that is used to decide who is responsible for the council tax payment on every property. The order of hierarchy is:

• The person who lives there, who owns the freehold;
• The person who lives there, who owns the leasehold;
• The person who lives there, who is a statutory or ‘secure’ tenant;
• The person who lives there, who has a contractual licence;
• The person who lives there;
• The owner.

To find out who is responsible for the bill we ask the people who are living there what interest they have in the property. If there is no-one living there the liability for council tax falls to the owner.

pages for more information.