BenefitsUniversal Credit Child Benefit Council Tax

Tax year 2026/27 · Rest of UK · annual

Council Tax Calculator

Yearly council tax bill by band, with discounts, for 2026/27.

Tax year

Region

Schedule

Your details

Council tax bandYour council's Band D rate (yearly)

Discount

Estimated council tax (year)

£2,200

About £220 a month over 10 payments

Breakdown

Full Band D bill	£2,200
Discount	£0
You pay (year)	£2,200
Monthly (10 payments)	£220
Monthly (12 payments)	£183

Interactive scenarios

Tax and deductions, your way

Tax year

Region

Pay schedule

Salary £45,000

Net (monthly)

£2,806

Income tax (monthly)

£541

NI (monthly)

£216

Effective rate

20.2%

Modelled on a 5% pension. Showing monthly figures, rest of UK, tax year 2026/27.

The full guide

Everything worth knowing about Council Tax

Worked examples with real figures, the rules underneath the number, and the traps that catch people out.

Council Tax Calculator: your band is a fraction of one local number

Council tax is built from a single local figure: your council's Band D rate. Every other band pays a fixed fraction of it, from two thirds for Band A to double for Band H. Tell the calculator your band and the Band D rate, £2,200 in the worked figures below, and it builds your bill from those two inputs alone.

On that rate a Band D home pays £2,200 a year and a Band B home pays £1,711.11, and a single adult takes 25% off either figure. The sections below explain how the bands were set, how the fractions work, which discounts the calculator models and what a real bill contains beyond its estimate.

Your 1991 value decides the band, not today's price

Bands were set from 1991 property values in England and Scotland and from 2003 values in Wales. A home that has doubled in price since then keeps its original band, so two neighbours in very different current values can pay exactly the same tax.

Bands A to H: set in 1991, charged as fractions of Band D

Every home sits in one of eight bands, A to H, fixed by its value on 1 April 1991 in England and Scotland, or 1 April 2003 in Wales. The England ranges the calculator uses run from Band A at up to £40,000, through Band B at £40,001 to £52,000, Band C at £52,001 to £68,000 and Band D at £68,001 to £88,000, then Band E at £88,001 to £120,000, Band F at £120,001 to £160,000, Band G at £160,001 to £320,000 and Band H above £320,000.

The charge for each band is a fixed share of the Band D rate, expressed in ninths. Band A pays six ninths, Band B seven ninths, Band C eight ninths and Band D nine ninths, then Band E pays eleven ninths, Band F thirteen ninths, Band G fifteen ninths and Band H eighteen ninths. In plain terms Band A always pays two thirds of the Band D bill and Band H always pays double it, in every council area in the country.

Because the band was fixed decades ago, nothing about your home's current worth enters the calculation. What you paid for it, what it would sell for now and what the house next door fetched last year are all irrelevant. Only the band on the valuation list and this year's Band D rate decide the bill, which is why the calculator needs nothing else from you.

Your band is printed on your bill, and the valuation list for your whole area is public, so you can look up the band of every house on your street. That transparency matters for the challenge route covered at the end of this page: identical homes sitting in different bands are visible at a glance, and they are the strongest evidence that a band has been set wrong.

The Band D rate: one number sets every bill in your area

Each council sets its budget and expresses the household share of it as a single Band D figure for the year. In areas with county and district councils the figure on your bill combines those layers with the police and fire precepts, but it still reaches you as one number, and that one number is what the calculator asks for. You will find it printed on your bill, or on your council's website.

Put a Band D rate of £2,200 into the fractions and the whole local scale appears. Band A pays £1,466.67, Band B pays £1,711.11, Band C pays £1,955.56, Band D pays £2,200, Band E pays £2,688.89, Band F pays £3,177.78, Band G pays £3,666.67 and Band H pays £4,400.

The rate explains why identical bands cost different amounts in different places. A Band C home under a council charging £2,600 at Band D pays more than a Band D home under a council charging £2,000. When a council raises its rate by a given percentage, every band in its area rises by the same percentage, because the ninths never change.

Put two Band B homes side by side to see the postcode effect in full. At a Band D rate of £2,000 the bill is £1,555.56, and at a rate of £2,600 the identical band pays £2,022.22. Same band, same ninths, a gap of £466.66 a year created entirely by the local budget on the other side of a council boundary.

Discounts: 25% off for one adult, 100% off for student households

The single person discount removes 25% when only one adult counts as living in the home. On a Band D bill at a £2,200 rate that is £550 off, leaving £1,650 to pay. The discount follows the household rather than the property, so it starts when a second adult moves out and ends the day one moves back in.

The student position is stronger still. Where every resident is a full time student, the household is exempt and the bill falls to nothing, which the calculator models as its student option applying a 100% discount. A mixed home sits between the two: one working adult living with a student usually qualifies for the 25% discount instead, because the student does not count as a resident adult, and the calculator covers that case through its single person option.

Discounts apply after the band fraction, never before it. A Band A home with one adult on a £2,200 rate works through the full sequence in two steps: six ninths of £2,200 gives a full bill of £1,466.67, and 25% off that figure leaves exactly £1,100 to pay.

Who counts as an adult is a set of rules of its own. Full time students are not counted, and neither are some apprentices, carers and people with severe mental impairment, which is how a home with two adults under one roof can still qualify for the single person discount or better. The calculator folds all of that into its three choices: work out how many adults count in your home, then pick none, single or student to match.

Worked example: a Band B flat with one adult

Take a Band B flat in an area with a £2,200 Band D rate, occupied by one adult. The band fraction is seven ninths, so the full bill is £2,200 multiplied by seven ninths: £1,711.11 a year.

The single person discount takes 25% off that figure, which is £427.78, leaving £1,283.33 to pay. Spread over ten monthly instalments the bill is £128.33 a month, and spread over twelve it is £106.94 a month.

Remove the discount and the same flat pays the full £1,711.11, or £171.11 a month over ten instalments. Move the same single adult into a Band D house instead and the discounted bill rises to £1,650. Band, local rate and household count are the only three levers in the calculation, and the example has now moved each of them once.

Paying the bill, and what this estimate leaves out

Most households pay over ten monthly instalments running from April to January, and you can ask your council to spread the same bill over twelve instead at no extra cost. The calculator shows both monthly figures because the choice changes your cash flow without changing the tax: the Band D single adult above pays £165 a month over ten instalments or £137.50 over twelve.

Moving house mid year does not double the charge. Each council bills you only for the days you lived in the property, so a move splits the year between two bills, and anything overpaid to the first council comes back as a refund or as a credit against the next bill. The annual figure the calculator shows is the full year at one address; a mover simply slices it at the moving date.

A real bill can also carry reductions this calculator does not model. A disability reduction can drop a home into the band below, low income households can claim council tax reduction from their own council, and empty or second homes can attract premiums that raise the bill above the standard figure. None of those appear here, so treat the result as the standard bill for your band and household before any special reduction.

Your annual bill shows the same working the calculator uses. It names your band, states the full charge for the year and lists the elements your Band D rate is built from, so the two numbers you typed in can be checked against the document in seconds. If the band in the calculator and the band on the bill ever disagree, the bill is the one to query, because the band it shows is the one the council is legally charging on.

If you believe the band itself is wrong, you can challenge it through the Valuation Office Agency in England or the corresponding body elsewhere. Go in knowing a review can move a band up as well as down, and that the strongest evidence either way is the banding of similar homes on the same street.

Where the Council Tax Calculator gets its figures

Rates, bands and thresholds follow published HMRC and gov.uk figures for the 2026/27 tax year, held in one table that every tool reads. April arrives, the table changes, and the results move together.

Earlier years stay available through the year selector, so a late self assessment runs on the numbers that applied at the time rather than today's.

Some cases still need an accountant. K codes carrying negative allowances, bespoke sacrifice arrangements, the annual allowance taper for very high earners, and anything involving two employments at once.

About this calculator

The Council Tax calculator estimates your yearly bill from your property band and your council's Band D rate, including the 25% single person discount where it applies.

Frequently asked questions

How is my council tax band decided?+

Bands are based on what your home would have sold for on 1 April 1991 in England and Scotland (1 April 2003 in Wales). Band A covers the cheapest homes up to £40,000 and Band H covers homes over £320,000. Your band is on your bill or on the GOV.UK checker.

What is the single person discount?+

If you are the only adult living in your home, you get 25% off your council tax bill. Some councils also give discounts for empty properties or second homes, but the rules vary, so check your local authority's website.

Do students pay council tax?+

Full-time students are usually exempt entirely, and a household made up only of students pays nothing. If you live with non-students, the bill is worked out as if the students do not live there, which often triggers the 25% single person discount.

Can I pay council tax monthly?+

Yes. Most councils spread the yearly bill over 10 monthly payments from April to January, and you can usually ask to stretch it over 12 months instead. Paying over 12 months makes each payment smaller but means paying through February and March too.

What if I cannot afford my council tax?+

Contact your council straight away rather than missing payments, because arrears can escalate to court action quickly. Many councils run a Council Tax Reduction scheme for low incomes, and Citizens Advice can help you apply.

How do I find my council's Band D rate?+

It is printed on your council tax bill and published on your local authority's website each spring. Enter that figure above and the calculator scales it to your band using the official ratios, from 6/9 of Band D for Band A up to 18/9 for Band H.

Can I challenge my council tax band?+

Yes, if you think your band is wrong you can challenge it with the Valuation Office Agency in England and Wales. Check similar properties on your street first, because a successful challenge can move your band up as well as down.