How council tax is calculated

Hampshire County Council’s council tax is now just shown on one line on council tax bills, whereas in previous years it was split up into two separate lines on bills. This is due to a change in the Government legislation which specifies how council tax must be shown on bills.

The legislation previously required Hampshire County Council’s total council tax to be split up into two separate lines on council tax bills.

• Most was shown on the main “Hampshire County Council” line.
• Council tax which was dedicated to funding adult social care pressures was shown on a separate line, called the “Adult social care precept”.

These two items have now been added together, with everything included in the main “Hampshire County Council” line.

The new format is welcome as it makes bills clearer. Hampshire County Council had been asking the Government to permit us to make this change for many years.

The change in format may result in some queries this year about how bills are calculated. The worked example below sets out how this year’s council tax increase was calculated.  The amounts used in the example are for a Band D property.

The percentage increase is stated on council tax bills to one decimal place, so the 4.995% is shown on them as 5.0%. The actual cash amounts on bills are calculated more precisely. The example above gives the percentage increase in more detail to 4.995%, in order to help explain why the precise cash increase is not exactly 5.0%.

Your council tax bill will also show the amounts charged by other local authorities, such as the district council. No changes have been made to how council tax is shown on bills for these other authorities. This is because the previous requirement to break council tax up into two lines only applied to councils which are responsible for providing adult social care, which only the County Council does in Hampshire.