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Don't Pay Council Tax!

April 06, 2013 11:00

Date Star-blue1 Published: April 02, 2013 09:42 by Anti Austerity Action |

Tagged as: cuts

Bulwell Market Place

Places:

A campaiging stall to urge people not to pay Council Tax as a protest against cuts in local services, bedroom tax, council tax benefit cuts, etc.  Already thousands of people on low incomes in Nottingham are not paying Council Tax and the more that resist, the more of a financial crisis it will create for local and national government.  Come along and join in the fun - and don't forget to cancel your own Council Tax payments.

Email Contact email: antiausterity@talktalk.net

Comments

Consequences

Comment Published: April 02, 2013 16:45 by alB

What will happen to me when I don't pay my council tax? Will I be arrested? evicted? fined?

debt collectors

Comment Published: April 02, 2013 17:12 by Generate Mutate

My experience is they will send you lots of warnings. Then refer you to a debt collector (who will add hundreds on to what you owe).

I think the idea of this campaign is that if everyone refuses at the same time, then it will be too costly (legally and in lost funds) for the council to pursue this action.

What Happens If We Refuse to Pay Council Tax?

Comment Published: April 05, 2013 09:51 by Anti-Austerity Action

Not paying Council Tax is a civil offence and not a criminal offence.

Firstly, the council will send us reminders asking us to pay up.

Secondly, the council can issue a summons demanding full payment of arrears plus some costs.

Thirdly, if we don’t pay up the council can take us to the Magistrates’ Court which can impose a Liability Order to force us to pay. Money can be deducted from wages and benefits. Appearing in court is an opportunity to draw public attention to the injustice of the austerity cuts.

Fourthly, if the council can’t grab the arrears with a Liability Order—as could be the case with some self-employed people—then it will send the bailiffs to our homes to seize property.

Fifthly, if the council still can’t get the money then they can apply to the magistrates to send us to prison for up to three months.

The more of us who refuse to pay up, the more difficult it will be for councils and courts to force us to pay up. The aim of refusing to pay is to starve local government of funds and thus create a financial crisis to which the Coalition Government must respond. If many thousands of people in a locality refuse to pay—as happened with the Anti-Poll Tax campaign - it will clog up the system. Remember, we are many and they, our politician enemies, are few.

Any really effective action against the State will result in it trying to get back at us. That's the risk we must take but there would be some safety in numbers.

It is possible to resist these payments

Comment Published: April 06, 2013 13:41 by NSN

http://nottingham.tachanka.org/articles/2775

NSN prevented lowell debt recovery from extracting £1541.27 from a nottingham resident..

I'm sure that a campaign such as this could mobilize more people if they are all in the same boat.

questions

Comment Published: April 06, 2013 22:42 by Generate Mutate

I have a couple of technical questions about the above posts.

1) Does the council have to take the outstanding council tax to the Magistrates’ Court before it can refer it to a debt collector?

2) In the James Coll (Nottingham resident) case, he was falsely accused of owing money by the Lowell Group. Do you think this made it easier to win the case?