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Thursday 5 April 2012

Issues with the tax line!

Soooooooo...

I’m not going to lie to you all, not a great deal has happened to me recently. Life is continuing at its ever present speed, with me just floating along in my own little bubble. March held 4 family birthday’s and Mother’s Day, so a tad more expensive then I was expecting...although I did randomly get paid by my old employer...very confusing. But yeah, otherwise, not a lot really!!

Ah. One thing that I will mention, both because it has riled me, and also as I think it is something people should be aware of, is this: THE COUNCIL’S ARE EVIL!!! Council Tax, one of life’s staple payments through life is something that we just have to get used to. But not yet. No, my fellow student’s/prospective’s thereof, that time is not yet upon us. For the student is EXEMPT from this particular drain on our finances!! Cue cheering and confetti cannons. However, the Council (or at the very least Lewisham Council) seem to have difficulty with this, so I thought I’d quickly post about it.

Firstly – if you are going to be living in halls, do will not need to do any of this as the university will sort this out for you. If you are going to be living off-campus though, whether in a house or a flat, or even at home with your parents, you will need to sort this yourself otherwise you or your family will be paying more council tax then they need to.

Secondly – Go online to the university website and order a Council Tax Exemption Letter from the University. This is an official document from the University of Greenwich proving that you are a full time student and therefore exempt from paying the tax. Collect this from your campus Student Centre. You may find (like we did) that your exemption letter doesn’t cover the entire time that you’ve been living in your property and as such be entitled to pay for that time. If you are a returning student within their 2nd or 3rd year, you will need to go to the Student Centre and ask for a Council Tax Exemption letter spanning the entirety of your course, proving you’re exempt.

Thirdly – take a photocopy for your own records, and then send the originals to your local council tax office, who will then action this and remove any fee’s from your account. If this is not done properly you may find that they send you letter’s threatening you will legal action/extra charges/bailiffs (can you tell I’ve got experience of this?) at which point ring them up and annoy them until FINALLY they get the message and exempt you. Simples.

So yeah, just another bit of university life advice from your friendly, neighbourhood student-man.

P.S. This one is a little short, but with exam’s coming up I’m sure I’ll have plenty to write about in the instalment!

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