Here is who sets what, why your rise may not match your neighbour’s, and how to work out which line on the bill actually moved. Our council tax billing and collection page covers how a bill is issued.

Your council does, and it sets a single figure. Section 93(1) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 requires a local authority to set one amount for a band D dwelling each financial year, and every other band follows from that by a fixed proportion.

One number, eight bands

Section 93(1)(b) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 requires the council to determine the amount for every other band in accordance with the proportions in section 74(1). So the council votes on one figure and the other seven are arithmetic.

Those proportions were substituted with effect from 1 April 2017 by the Council Tax (Substitution of Proportion) (Scotland) Order 2016, SSI 2016/368. That change affected bands E to H only.

The proportions your bill is built on

A band F household pays 1.625 times the band D amount, so an identical percentage rise produces a larger cash increase there than in band A. What the council tax bands in Scotland are sets the bands out in full.

The 11 March deadline is softer than it looks

Section 93(2) says a council must set its tax before 11 March in the preceding financial year. It then says the tax is not invalid merely because it is set on or after that date.

Nothing in section 93 gives the Scottish Government a cap or a veto over the figure.

No, and the number most often quoted is not a bill at all. The Scottish Government’s funding calculations for 2026-27 assume a band D figure of £911, and its own publication records that every council sets a higher rate than that.

What the £911 actually is

It is a funding-formula assumption used to estimate council tax income across Scotland, and the publication says the same amount is assumed for all councils. It is not anybody’s charge.

The same publication gives the real spread for the year before. In 2025-26 the band D charge across Scotland’s councils ranged from £1,379 to £1,666.

Which years were frozen, and which were not

The Scottish Government records council tax freezes in 2008-09 to 2016-17, in 2021-22 and in 2024-25. There is no freeze for 2026-27.

For the current year, the figure that matters is the one your own council published with its budget. General council tax information sits on mygov.scot.

No. Scottish Water makes the charges scheme under section 29A of the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland approves it, and your council only collects it.

Who sets it and who collects it

Section 29A requires Scottish Water to make a charges scheme fixing the charges for its core functions, and to send it to the Commission for approval. The Commission may approve it with or without modifications.

Your council collects those charges for unmetered homes under the Water and Sewerage Services to Dwellings (Collection of Unmetered Charges by Local Authority) (Scotland) Order 2023, in force 1 April 2023. That Order covers the service years 2023-24 to 2027-28.

So the water line on the bill is not council tax, is not set by your council, and cannot be reduced by your council. Your council is Scottish Water’s collection agent for it.

How the two halves moved this year

Scottish Water announced on 22 January 2026 an average household increase of 8.67% for 2026-27, described as around £42 a year or £3.50 a month. Your council’s decision on the council tax was a separate one, taken by a different body.

That is why the percentage you calculate from the bill total is neither figure. Compare the council tax line against last year’s council tax line, and the water lines against last year’s water lines.

The two halves do not even use the same band multipliers

Bands A to D match. Bands E to H do not, because Scottish Water’s published 2026-27 charges stand in different ratios from the council tax proportions in section 74(1).

The water column is arithmetic on Scottish Water’s published unmetered charges for 2026-27. In band F your council tax is 1.625 times band D while your water charge is 1.444 times the band D water charge.

This is the most common personal cause of a jump. A single person discount of 25% ends the moment a second countable adult moves in, and a disregard ends when the qualifying circumstances do.

Things worth checking before you accept it

• Whether a student certificate for the new academic year is still outstanding.
• Whether someone has been counted as a resident adult who does not live there.
• Whether a live-in carer, a care leaver under 26 or a severely mentally impaired resident has been counted.

The Universal Credit trap on severe mental impairment

Universal Credit stopped being an automatic qualifying benefit on 1 April 2023. It now counts only where the award includes the limited capability for work-related activity amount, or the person has limited capability for work.

Someone passported before that date keeps it only until their award changes for a reason other than annual uprating. The severe mental impairment council tax exemption covers the qualifying benefits in full.

How far back a correction can go

Discounts, exemptions and the disabled band reduction carry no statutory maximum backdating period, so an award wrongly removed can in principle be corrected from the date the conditions were met. How far back a council goes is discretionary and evidence-led, and getting council tax backdated when you were wrongly charged sets out the rules that apply to each.

Council Tax Reduction is different, and it has firm periods. Whether Council Tax Reduction can be backdated covers those, and what council tax discounts are available in Scotland covers the rest.

It can be, and since 1 April 2026 there is no statutory maximum. A premium can be applied to a long-term empty home, meaning one continuously unoccupied for more than 12 months, and to a second home.

What changed in April 2026

The cap was removed by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, which amended section 33 of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003. SSI 2026/169 amended the Council Tax (Variation for Unoccupied Dwellings) (Scotland) Regulations 2013 to set a national default of 100%.

A council can set a rate above that default, below it, none at all, or a discount instead. There is no single national figure to quote, so check what your own council has published.

The middle category that cannot be increased

An unoccupied dwelling that is neither a second home nor long-term empty attracts a default 50% discount, which councils may vary but must keep between 10% and 50%. No increase applies to that category, and what the empty property council tax premium is covers the detail.

A second home is a different category with an immediate effect and no 12-month wait. Whether you pay council tax on a second home in Scotland sets out the test.

It can be altered, but not for the reason most people assume. A material increase in value from building work takes effect only on the next sale, so an extension should not move your band while you still own the property.

What the band is based on

Every Scottish dwelling is banded on what it would have sold for on the open market on 1 April 1991, under regulation 2 of the Council Tax (Valuation of Dwellings) (Scotland) Regulations 1992.

There has been no revaluation since. Bands are set by the regional Scottish Assessors rather than by your council.

Making a proposal to the Assessor

A proposal generally has to be made within 6 months of becoming the owner or liable person, of the Assessor altering the band, or of a tribunal decision on a comparable property in the area. Some grounds can be raised at any time, including a material reduction in value.

The Assessor must acknowledge a proposal within 14 days and has 6 months to determine it. Assessor contact details are at the Scottish Assessors Association, and how to challenge your council tax band in Scotland covers the procedure.

Onward appeals go to the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, which took over council tax appeals on 1 April 2023. A fall in the housing market is not a ground.

Often it is. An unpaid balance from an earlier year, a 10% statutory surcharge after a summary warrant, or the same annual charge squeezed into fewer months all make a bill look far larger than the charge itself has become.

Why instalments get bigger

The statutory default is up to ten monthly instalments running from April and ending no later than the penultimate month of the year, under Schedule 1 to the 1992 Regulations as substituted by regulation 6 of SSI 2000/261.

Lose the right to pay by instalments and the rest of the year falls due at once, and a rebill part way through the year spreads the same charge over fewer months. Why you lose the right to pay council tax in instalments explains how that happens.

The 10% is added once

The same sub-paragraph adds a surcharge of 10 per cent of the sum remaining due and unpaid. It is added once, when the warrant is granted, not annually.

Water and sewerage charges carry their own separate summary warrant and their own separate 10%, under Schedule 4 to the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002. How much the 10% summary warrant penalty is covers it, and whether a council can add charges to your council tax arrears covers what else can sit on the balance.

Which year did your payment go to?

There is no statutory rule setting the order. The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 1992 say nothing about how a payment is applied between years, so it is council policy rather than law.

That is worth knowing, because it means you can ask.

Say in writing, at or before the moment you pay, which financial year the payment is for. A demand notice relates to one dwelling and one financial year, so the year is the unit that matters.

What changed, and what to do about it

If the figure is right and you cannot pay it, ask for an affordable arrangement in writing and check what Council Tax Reduction in Scotland is at the same time. Our council tax debt advice page sets out how we help.