We encourage everyone to report fraud whenever they are aware of or suspect it is taking place. You can report council tax or business rate fraud to our Veritau Team; they investigate all suspected fraud on our behalf.
Council tax fraud
If someone knowingly gives incorrect or misleading information, or fails to inform us of a change in circumstances in order to pay less or no council tax, they're committing council tax fraud.
For example, they may claim to be the only person living in a house, when more than 1 person lives there; or they may falsely claim to be a student, when they're not. It's also an offence to claim a Single Person Discount for a property that's not classed as your main home.
For further guidance, see council tax discounts and exemptions and property discounts and exemptions.
Non-domestic (business) rates fraud
If a business attempts to gain relief/exemptions from business rates they're not entitled to, either by making a false statement or failing to disclose information, they're committing business rates fraud. See further information about available business rate reliefs and criteria for eligibility.
If a business illegally evades paying business rates, either in full or in part, they're committing business rate fraud. We need your help to identify such businesses, so we can recoup lost business rates revenue and to secure future payments; contact our fraud prevention team, Veritau.
Examples of business rates fraud include:
- not declaring a new business premise
- not declaring that a property is being used for business purposes
- failure to inform the local authority that a business has moved into a property
- falsely stating that a business property is no longer in use
Fraud prevention and data matching exercises
We carry out regular fraud prevention and data matching exercises to protect ourselves against fraud.
Also see
Veritau Team
Report fraud on our freephone number, telephone: 0800 917 9247