Council rebate

@renatew5😺🐶 although State Pension counts as 'taxable income' they are not allowed to deduct any tax from it. This means that if you have multiple other sources of income, they have to apply all the deductions to one or more of those - makes it look bad!! Are you happy and able to check that HMRC are indeed applying the correct code and that you are not paying more income tax than you should be? If you are doubtful then a visit to Citizens Advice with all your records, income details etc should enable them to reassure you that all is as it should be. Sadly, HMRC is no longer 'fit for purpose' as it's almost impossible to get through to them directly or get any replies from them at all - it's scandalous really! For reasons I won't bore you with (makes a change I hear you say!!), swmbo has recently joined the ranks of us poor taxpayers. She will therefore be liable to complete a Self Assessment return. Trying to do the right thing, we have been trying to tell them this so they can issue her a code etc. It's proved impossible even to do this!! I don't quite know what else I can do to make sure she pays the tax she is legally obliged to do!! Quite ridiculous especially when you have these multi million pound businesses paying virtually no UK tax!!

@harryflatters I have all of this some years ago. John is gone now 15 years and I am paying the right amount in tax and I am just at ease that they don't try to get us pensioners to cough up the NI increase.

@renatew5😺🐶 excellent! He wouldn't have the nerve to extend NI to us retired 'non workers'!! In fact, Rishi has announced today that although he is going ahead with the increased rate of NI (much to Boris' annoyance!), he has raised the threshold at which it becomes payable by £3,000. Essentially, the level at which NI becomes payable will be similar to the individual personal tax allowance.

Yes, I thought we were in the D band but after closely checking the bill, we are in band C. Heaven help us all if they really start to assess the true rateable value, we really would get a shock. It was discussed in certain government quarters but at present, they let sleeping dogs lay.

The first instalment is £158.34 followed by 9 payments of £161.00, that's and extra £5 on last years. The water rates have gone up by £5 on the month too and with the energy bill, I think I will have to find another £100 for gas/electric combined. It is not easy but we will manage, we always do and I am just glad that John's job is permanent and the pay is good. There is some riggle room come June because the mortgage is finished, no doubt it will be snaffled up by some unforseen domestic emergency. The new windows for the back of the house will have wait for another Spring.@Janet 💋🍰🍝🍹

@renatew5😺🐶 how good is that, with your mortgage finishing in June. That should indeed give you a bit of 'wiggle' room although, as you say, just when you think you are getting ahead, something comes along to pull you back!! Yes, @Janet 💋🍰🍝🍹 the money we earned to contribute to our pensions is taxed, it's taxed when we spend it, it's taxed when we save it and then it's taxed again when we take said pension!!

@harryflatters I am so glad that my main supermarket (Lidl) is so close by and I don't have a car anymore. I handed my licence back after my 70th birthday. We are using the garage for storing, all my gardening stuff and John's stuff still wrapped and packed from his last move but our 45-year-old garage door has completely gone. King Doors manufacture does not exist anymore and we need a completely new door. The new door includes fitting and all the stuff that goes with it, labour & VAT = £1496. And Wudhus Ltd does not accept cash, only Debit or Credit Card. I don't know, is this good or bad? I suppose Flexi Max will have to spring into the breach. Fitting within four weeks from 14th March.

@renatew5😺🐶 oh dear, that's a big bill to swallow. Still, I'm sure it will look very smart and make your garage secure again. Personally, I wouldn't want to be messing around with nearly £1,500 in cash!! Paying by card is much safer. If buying an item over £100, I always use a credit card (paying it off in full when the statement arrives). The reason is that if something goes wrong, the credit card issuer has to make good your loss if the supplier can't or won't. This was useful when I bought a laptop from Currys online and it never arrived. Getting nowhere with Currys over an extended period of time, a phone call to the card provider and my money was refunded pronto!

@harryflatters, Yes I agree with you there. By the time the credit card bill comes through, I can go and pay the bill in cash back at the bank. I have had a bad experience with Curry's too. I had a valeting contract for my oven with them and paid up the due renewal last year but when I tried to book a service, they told me over the phone that they do not do the valeting anymore because of Covid. Never got my money back. I could not claim because the sum was under £100. You live and learn.

Council tax was waiting for me when I came back from Lidl. The rebate will be paid to the bank account in April and the council tax has been increased by 3.4%, which is in real money an extra £5 a month on the DD.

John recently needed a new TV and was ready to take a trip to Currys but in the end we looked on Amazon, even saved some money and free p&p with next day delivery.

Oh @nabob why is band E not in it please as that does not sound very fair at all

It is all to do with the value of your house at a set date. We were banded as F. We live on an estate of forty houses and ours is one of the smallest build. We were classed with the bigger houses. Hence my request for reducing the band. So this present rebate thing looks like it was someone's guess at people's wealth? However I am not sure that all councils will work the same, someone in band E in other parts of the country might pay more or less than me?

We haven't had ours yet @Happygirl a friend posted this on Facebook. We are in band D so hopefully will have it.

@Janet 💋🍰🍝🍹 I have not had my council tax bill as yet but it is due, seeing that they want the first instalment on 8th of April and our home is in band D too.