Living Abroad Life in the UK

How to cancel council tax when moving abroad

Zorica Lončar

16.05.22 (updated more than 1 year ago)

Read time 2 minutes

If you’re planning on leaving the UK to live abroad, you’re likely to have a long to-do list to work through. One of the necessary jobs will be to cancel your council tax. But how do you go about it?

In this handy guide, we’ll run through how to cancel your council tax when moving abroad. This includes how to get started and what information you’ll need.

And to get you ready for your international move, we’ll even show you a smart way to manage your money across borders - the Wise multi-currency account.

But first, let’s get that council tax sorted for you.

How to contact your local authority to cancel council tax

To cancel your council tax, you’ll need to get in touch with your local council to inform them that you’ll be leaving your address and moving abroad.

Each local authority will have its own process for this, so it could be that you’ll need to call up, send an email or complete an online/paper form.

You can find the website for your local council here. From there, you can search for the relevant contact details and the process for cancelling your council tax.

What information will I need to provide to cancel council tax?

The details you’ll need to cancel your council tax may vary, depending on the local council.

But here’s a quick checklist of information you may need to have ready¹:

The address of your current property
The names of the people who’ll be leaving the property
The date you left or will be leaving
Your new address
Your council tax account reference number - you should be able to find this on your council tax bill.

If you rent the property, you’ll also need to provide details of your landlord. If you’re selling your home, you’ll need to let the council know who the new owner is¹.

Will I get a council tax refund?

Once you inform your local council that you’re moving out of the UK, they’ll cancel your council tax payments.

But if your account is in credit, you could be due a refund². You may need to request this, or it may be issued automatically - it all depends on the council. You can find out more about council tax refunds on your local authority’s website.

Get ready for life abroad with a Wise multi-currency account

An important thing to think about when planning your move overseas is how you’ll manage your money. It’s likely that you’ll need to send and receive payments between the UK and your new country. But if you use your bank, this could work out expensive as well as slow.

Wise offers the ideal solution. Open a Wise multi-currency account and you can send money worldwide for low fees and the mid-market exchange rate. You can convert and hold 50+ currencies in your account, and receive international payments in 10 currencies.

There’s even a contactless Wise debit card for low fee spending in 200+ countries.

Join Wise today

Sources used for this article:

Manchester.gov.uk - council tax changes
Manchester.gov.uk - request a refund on your council tax

Sources checked on 16-05-2022.

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