Council Tax is a tax on domestic properties collected and used to pay for a wide range of local services such as recycling and refuse collections, parks, schools, roads and street lighting. Although we collect Council Tax we keep only a small percentage with the remainder going to Surrey County Council, Surrey Police and Parish Councils (where applicable).

Council Tax is not a direct charge for individual services received; the amount collected is paid into a central fund to enable us to provide services for the benefit of the community as a whole.

The layout of Council Tax bills is prescribed by the government and require us to list the Adult Social Care precept separately on the bill, even though it is part of Surrey County Council’s element of the Council Tax bill.

To understand how the percentage increase is calculated, please treat each line on the bill separately, comparing last year to this year. There is an exception for the Surrey County Council (SCC) and Adult Social Care (ASC) calculations shown below.

Please note that each percentage is rounded to 1 decimal place (as required by law). Therefore, adding the percentages together and getting an average will not give the total percentage increase. This too needs to be calculated separately. See below for an example.

To calculate the percentage increase correctly, first add together the figure for SCC and ASC to get the total amount paid to Surrey for last year. Then calculate the difference between last year’s figure and this year’s figure for each line (SCC and again for ASC).

To find the percentage increase for each line, take the amount of the increase, divide it by the total amount paid to SCC last year and multiply that by 100. That is then rounded and expressed as the percentage on the bill. See below for an example.

To calculate these increases, find the difference between last year’s figures and this year’s. Then divide this figure by the amount shown on last year’s bill (for that line) and multiply it by 100. That is then rounded to one decimal place and expressed as the overall percentage on the bill.

For example, to calculate the Annual Charge percentage increase for a non-parished Band D property, the total amount payable for Council Tax last year was £2,184.84 and this year it is £2,287.32. The difference between the two (the increase) is £102.48.

£102.48 divided by £2,184.84 multiplied by 100 is 4.7%

To find out more about the Council Tax charges for Surrey Police and SCC, please use these links:

• Surrey Police
• Surrey County Council