About your Council Tax
What is the council's budget?
You can learn more about the council's budget, what's its focusing on in 2023-24 and how the budget is spent on the council tax budget page.
What does council tax fund?
Council tax goes towards paying for our services, including education and social services. We collect an additional charge made by the Greater London Authority.
We receive money from the Government and income from business rates. However, this is not enough to cover the cost of council services. The difference is made up by the council tax you pay.
The law relating to council tax is contained within the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and subsequent regulations.
How your council tax is calculated
We calculate your council tax by:
- planning all our services for the coming year
- arriving at a total cost of delivering these services
- deducting any income we receive from fees, charges, grants and other income (including a percentage of the business rates we collect)
The final figure we calculate is what needs to be funded through council tax. We divide this figure between all properties in the borough, taking into account the varying council tax property bands.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) goes through a similar process and its share is then added to the Kingston Council amount to give the total council tax for each property.
What this means for you - how much you pay
Every household in the borough is sent one council tax bill, the amount each household pays depends on which property valuation band your home falls in and any discounts or exemptions that you're entitled to.
Property valuation bands are currently based on property market values as of April 1991. The Band D tax forms the basis of the council tax charge for all properties and those in other bands pay a proportion of this Band D tax. Your council tax bill shows your property tax band.
Your council tax bill also includes the precept collected for the Greater London Authority, so the average Band D household will pay £2,246.71 for 2023/24
Households within three-quarters of a mile of Wimbledon Common are required to pay an additional levy for the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservations. This means these households have a higher council tax than the rest of the borough. See if your property is in Wimbledon and Putney Conservators Levy area
Council tax scamming
There have recently been reports of Council Tax scams across the country.
If you receive an email, text message or phone call offering a Council Tax refund or a Council Tax band reassessment, do not give out any personal information, particularly bank account or a debit or credit card details. Delete any emails or texts straight away and block the sender; do not reply or click on any links. If you receive a phone call, end the call as quickly as possible.
If you are in any doubt please access and check your Council Tax account online.
If you have been a victim please contact us and the Police straight away, and report it to Action Fraud. General advice for staying safe online is available on the Get Safe Online website.