Council Tax charges and who pays

If you live in a property and you’re over 18, you usually have to pay Council Tax. This is called being ‘liable’.

The first person who appears on this list is liable for paying Council Tax:

• owner-occupier
• tenant
• licensee
• resident - (including squatters)

More than one person can be liable to pay - for example, couples living together or joint owners or tenants.

The owner is also liable for:

• empty properties
• houses in multiple occupation where the residents have separate leases and only pay rent for part of the property - like a bedsit with shared facilities
• residential care homes or nursing homes
• religious communities, like monks and nuns
• houses occupied by ministers of religion
• houses occupied by most asylum seekers

Council Tax charges and bands

This table shows how much the Council Tax is for 2026 to 2027. 

The amount depends on your property’s Council Tax band. You can check your Council Tax band on GOV.UK.

The table also shows how much you’ll pay if you get a 25% or 50% discount. Check if you can get a Council Tax discount or exemption.

How your bill is calculated

The amount of Council Tax we set each year is based on the difference between how much we need to spend to provide services and how much income we get from the government and other income.

To maintain the services we provide, we increased Council Tax by 4.9% for 2026 to 2027. Read a letter about the Council Tax increase for 2026 to 2027 (PDF 248KB).  

Where your Council Tax goes

Some of your Council Tax goes to Hackney Council and some of it goes to the Greater London Authority (GLA).

See why the GLA’s share has increased for 2026 to 2027 (PDF 76KB).