Tax and Citizenship

Hello Guys,

I want to apply for British Citizenship in March 2011 under residential qualification period requirements. (WP+HSMP + ILR - Granted in March last year 2010)

My questions are:

1. How do the Home Office check for the candidate’s behaviour on council tax?

2. Do they in all cases check with local council tax authorities?

3. What happens if you are found in breach of the low during investigation?

The reason I am asking this is; I have lived around half of my 5 years term in a shared house and there wasn't any discussion about council tax at all because we assumed it was taken care of by the landlord and recently I have found that he didn’t actually pay the council tax claiming the exemption based on couple of students lived with us.

Also I am unsure of the dates; because there was a phase when I was on paper living at the older address and had a contract signed at the current address and physically I lived at both places.

How would home office verify that the dates I have mentioned are correct / accurate ?

Hope someone is able to give me some guidance. Thanks.

I would advice to find out from your local council about the council tax. Unless it is explicitly mentioned on your tenancy contract that landLord will foot the bill, it is not advisable to assume.

Regarding BC, I think they do check your records. A close friend of mine was asked too many detailed questions at the time of passport interview, so If you get lucky in getting BC approval you have another hurdle ready at next stage. I wouldnt risk BC for council tax.

You can atleast call your council and inquire so that it cam shoe that you are trying to resolve the issue instead of keeping quite and taking advantage of the situation.