Students & council tax
Full-time students are not included when adding up the number of
occupiers of a home or dwelling for the purposes of determining if
a discount is to be granted.
If all but one of the occupiers is a student, a 25 per cent
discount is granted on the council tax bill. If all the
occupiers are students, the dwelling is completely exempt from
council tax.
Definition of a student
To qualify as a student for council tax purposes, a person must
either be:
- a foreign language assistant
- undertaking a full-time course of education
- undertaking a qualifying course of education
Foreign language assistant
The person must be registered with the Central Bureau for
Educational Visits & Exchanges and be appointed as a foreign
language assistant at a school or other educational institution in
Great Britain.
Full-time course of education
The person must be enrolled for the purpose of
attending a full-time course with a prescribed educational
establishment. A full-time course is one which:
- subsists for at least one academic year
- requires attendance for at least 24 weeks in each year
- requires study, tuition or work experience for an average of 21
hours per week
Qualifying course of education
The person must be:
- under 20 years old
- not undertaking a course of full-time education
The course must:
- be for more than three months
- be for more than 12 hours per week
- not be a course of higher education
- not be a correspondence course
- not be undertaken in connection with a job
- involve tuition/studies between 8am and 5.30pm
Download a
student disregard application form (.pdf, 47k)
Contact us
Revenue Services
The Town Hall
Mulberry Place
5 Clove Crescent
London
E14 2BG
Show map
Tel: 020 7364 5002
Fax: 020 7364 4456
Email: counciltax@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Please quote your 10 digit council tax account reference in your
email