Council Tax

How the council uses Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates information

The kind of information we hold about you

Our Revenues team handles council tax billing and collection as well as Non-Domestic (Business) Rates billing and collection.  As part of this they will collect and process:

  • personal contact details (eg. name, address, title, telephone number, email address
  • date of birth
  • gender
  • martial status and dependents
  • next of kin
  • information about your finances
  • photograph

We may also collect, store and use details related to your physical or mental health where this is relevant for your Council Tax banding.

How is your personal information collected?

We collect personal information about you from the following sources:

  • You (via our online and paper forms, by written correspondence or over the telephone) or from someone you have authorised to act on your behalf
  • Indirectly from our Customer Services, Housing Options, Exchequer, Elections, Environmental Health, Planning Enforcement teams, or private sector housing.
  • From the Department of Work and Pensions, the Valuation Office Agency or North and East Devon Magistrates Court
  • Via our enforcement agents.

How we will use information about you

Where relevant we will use the personal information we collect about you for the purposes of:

  • Processing your council tax billing and collection data
  • Processing your non-domestic rate billing and collection data
  • Establishing the Council Tax and National Non-Domestic Rate Schedule of Liability Order
  • Establishing the Council Tax and National Non- Domestic Rate Valuation Rate
  • Processing reconciliation records
  • Processing recovery actions

We need to use the personal information we collect about you because it is necessary for us to perform our official functions (which have a basis in law) in accordance with Article 6(1)(e) GDPR and comply with our legal obligations in accordance with Article 6(1)(c) including our duties in connection with the setting and collection of council tax (and associated processing) in compliance with the law, including the Local Government Finance Act 1992, Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 and Council Tax (Demand Notices) (England) Regulations 2009

How we use particularly sensitive personal information

We will use your particularly sensitive personal information (ie. information connected with your health) in accordance with Article 9(2)(g) of the GDPR where processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, namely this is to ensure that your property is correctly banded in accordance with the Disabled Band Reduction Scheme.

Data sharing

Why might you share my personal information?

We will only share your personal data with other officers within the Council where they have a business need to know and/or where this is necessary in accordance for the performance of a public task. This may involve sharing your data with our:

  • Customer Services team (who act as the first port of call for information)
  • Housing Options team (where they are acting in accordance with our statutory duties as housing authority – for this purpose this team has access to our revenues system on our computers, where details collected pursuant to council tax billing and collection are held. Similarly certain information is provided to them by our benefits team but only where this is necessary in accordance with our statutory duties as housing authority)
  • ICT (who maintain our systems)
  • Exchequer team (for invoicing and processing payments only – to this end it is necessary for them to have access to our revenues system on our computers, where details collected pursuant to council tax billing and collection are held)
  • Elections team (we are the local registration office and therefore it is necessary for our elections team to have access to our revenues system on our computers, where details collected pursuant to council tax billing and collection are held)
  • Environmental Health and Planning Enforcement teams and private sector housing (these teams carry out public functions on behalf of the Council, accordingly we share personal information with them, such as up to date contact details, where they can demonstrate to us that this is necessary in accordance with the Council’s public functions in respect of environmental health and/or planning enforcement)

In relation to information which we hold on council tax billing and collection, the Council is required to share certain information with the Valuation Office Agency to enable them to set a council tax valuation band.

The Council is required to share information which we hold on council tax billing and collection with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the purposes of any one or more of ONS's functions under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.  The data will also be used in accordance with the ONS’s functions laid out in the Census Act 1920

We have appointed Devon Audit Partnership (Devon County Council) as our internal auditor and they may access our systems, which contain your personal information, in order to carry out an audit.

We have appointed Dukes Bailiffs Ltd as our enforcement agents. Your name, address, registration number and the outstanding amount of your debt will be shared with them where we seek to recoup an outstanding debt from you.

It is necessary to periodically review anyone receiving a single person discount to ensure the discount still applies. We have instructed Capacity Grid to manage this process. As part of this arrangement Capacity Grid are restricted and regulated in terms of how they use any relevant and necessary personal data of customers provided to them. Only the information that they require is provided.

As part of North Devon Council’s empty homes project, our private sector housing team may share council tax data with specialist genealogy research companies to trace, locate and engage with owners and executors of long term unoccupied properties

How long we keep it

For information about how long we hold personal data, see our Retention Schedule.

What are your rights?

In processing your personal data we are acting pursuant to our public task and statutory obligations. You therefore have the right to object to our processing of your personal data. There are legitimate reasons why we may refuse your objection, which depend on why we are processing it. For more information on your rights see Your Rights.