Council Tax And Saying NO Here Is Why!
Council tax, pah, I would be better giving all my earnings to a charity!
I am not an idle waster, I actually work for myself.
I am not unemployable, I choose not to be employed and as such I employ myself. I work 10-14 hours per day without the guarantee of a salary. I get out of my business what myself and others contribute, if the business is not a success then quite a few people will not have a wage neither.
I do not class myself as a Freeman nor a Sovereign, I do not need labels at all as I am just me! I am, however, interested in the way that Freemen and Sovereigns operate. I like their attitude and I know quite a few in real life and they are not benefit scroungers, neither am I.
Others have said and attempted to tarnish me with so many stereotypes used that it honestly beggars belief:
Benefits scounger
Council estate chav
Idle wasters
Freeloader
Those are just a few of the sterotypical slurs levied when someone makes a stand against something that they believe to be to be immoral. I am none of the above, I pay my own way and I rely not on the Government nor any other man to supply me with any benefits.
I firmly believe that council tax is immoral because it is not there as funding for services and this has been openly admitted by various councils. It is there to top up the shortfall in the general fund/grant issued by central government. Via Freedom Of Information requests it has also been proven that as much as 50% of council tax actually goes to pay into the pension schemes of local govt employees. Why should I have to subsidise anyone elses pension? Nobody subsidises mine!
I have never refused to pay council tax, I have used many avenues to attempt to get local councils to exactly define why I should have to pay it, what I am paying for, how the amount is calculated, what the breakdown for each service is, how much from the general fund compared to the amount collected in council tax is allocated for services such as Police, Fire etc.
How much from council tax has been investested overseas, such as in Iceland, how much was lost due to the collapse of banks and the crucial one is, why was there a surplus left over to invest if council tax is there to pay for services! Am I not entitled to know the answers to these questions? Or would you suggest that I just bend over and accept it all?
I have never attended a court over council tax, I have had a liability order issued against me and Bailiffs attended on numerous occassions to attempt to levy distress. They did not succeed in gaining a walking posession order let alone levying distress.
I do not use a “system” as no system is bullet proof. I have now dealt with council tax in the Scottish and also the English legal jurisdictions and not once have they managed to commence full proceedings against me.
Whilst in England a council did send the Bailiffs and yes they can be very threatening, however studying the statutes regarding council tax, role of Bailiffs, and the enforcability was invaluable to myself. The Bailiffs ended up handing the case file back to the council as they could enforce jack shit as they were denied entry.
I then did an FOIA request to the council asking the following:
How many households were in arrears for council tax
How many liability orders had been granted
How many times Bailiffs had been instructed
How many times walking posessions orders had been gained
Total value of all goods via walking posession orders
Number of times goods had been removed
Total value of goods sold at auction
Once I received the information I sat with my chin on the floor!
How many households were in arrears for council tax 4,803 estimated from the meeting.
How many liability orders had been granted 4,803
How many times Bailiffs had been instructed 1,841
How many times walking posessions orders had been gained 319
Total value of all goods via walking posession orders not available
Number of times goods had been removed zero
Total value of goods sold at auction zero
I then arranged a meeting with the Financial Director of said council and I brought all of this up, I had the local Tory councillor in tow (who was as much use as tits on a fish) and stated that the council was using intimidation and threats against householders. The FD had to agree this as he said “we have no other way of collecting this tax”! I stated that I was going to go to the media with the figures and FOIA and he asked me not to do this as “something could be sorted out”.
Two days later I received a council tax statement showing that £0.00 was owed!
So, I am not a freeman nor a sovereign, I just might be an awkward sod that firmly believes that he has the right to know.
The crux of this is that Councils are openly using threats and intimidation to extort monies from ordinary people.
Why don’t you just say no for a change and stop being a scared wee lamb, you will be lead to slaughter you know!
Nice post my friend being awkward has its uses eh!
I am not awkward with most people, I am awkward when I think that I am being scammed, ripped off or screwed!
Good evening Pete,
I have just been reading with great interest what you have been through with your council, and totally agree with you 100 percent. Why should we sit back an be bullied,victimized,threatened and intimidated by the government?
I am currently being threatened by my council, which is lambeth council, I have lost count at the amount of times that I have had to appeal against decisions for paying council tax and for not paying it. Each time I have had to take time off work, write numerous emails to managers, letters of complaints, which are always replied to with the standard template they use which means jack…. Made countless arrangements with them for paying council tax and made to feel less than a dog when my offers have been point blankly refused.
I have now reached the point now where I strongly believe that these organizations are blatantly robbing people. Forcing you to pay what you don’t have, victimizing you to the point where you feel physically, emotionally and mentally drained due to their barbaric tactics.
I salute you, because you stood up for yourself for something that you believe is not right, unjust and immoral and made a stand and got the justice you deserve.
I also want to make a stand right now and would welcome your assistance in doing so. For many years I have, sort of been an outcast with friends and family due to my strong views about the government and how they treat people on a daily basis, for this reason, I am frowned upon and made to feel like I don’t want to pay my way, when all I want is to be left alone to live and not be bullied or harassed by these devils of a council. Why is that such a bad thing.
I refuse to be robbed anymore by these governments but I want to contest this in a diplomatic way, without letting my emotions get the better of me, and I believe you can help me with that.
Please can you respond to me at my personal email address I have supplied so we can discuss this further.
Much appreciated.
Garry.
So you took a bribe? or you still contacted the media with the information?
Bribe? I took no bribe Dan, all I wanted was for them to leave me the fuck alone! Did they actually give me anything? Nope! Did I accept anything of value from them? Nope! I did not go to the media, this was not about informing other people Dan as I was nowehere near that point in my own life. This was about making them back off. If I do the same again and gain the same result then I will spread the word via bloggers as the MSM would never pick up the story and publish it.
Amazing what you dig up when you ask a few intelligent questions. I’m on a very similar path myself looking into who and what a council is now that they’ve all gone private and partnered with CAPITA or SERCO. Linc police are now G4S. HMCTS is now SERCO. HMRC is now Siemens. Do we even have a public sector any more??
Where are all the fecking so-called jouralists who should be climbing over this story and earning awards for investigative reporting? Cowards!
Good news is that they can’t keep this story contained much longer and when the story breaks watch out for the backlash. Remember the Poll Tax riots?
The problem with decent invesigative journalists Bollixed is that they tend to have short life spans and even shorter careers!
You managed to escape liability for council tax by blackmailing the council. Uh…ok.
Well Fred, let me ask you this. What kind of intimidation, threats, bullying, cohersion and extortion have been used against myself and millions of households across the UK?
How many times have the bully boy Bailiffs been sent in to extract monies that people cannot afford to pay and who have then agreed to pay this tax and on top the fees of Bailffs?
How many times have people been threatened with imprisonment for refusing to pay this tax? I know that I have and yet, I have never refused to pay council tax.
So whilst you use the word blackmail, I would never class what I have done as blackmail. I would class what I have done as nothing more than exposing the tactics, threats, intimidation, cohersion, bullying and extortion that is being carried out on a daily basis by Councils across the UK.
Is that “Uh…ok”?
“I would class what I have done as nothing more than exposing the tactics, threats, intimidation, cohersion, bullying and extortion that is being carried out on a daily basis by Councils across the UK.”
Exposed ? You did nothing more than repeat information on your own blog. Nothing new to see here.
Blackmail indeed. You made threat from which you gained and therefore did not carry out said threat. Such actions fulfil just about every definition of Blackmail there is.
Claiming Moral High ground is just laughable. Dress it up any way you like but you did not go to the media which, had you done regardless, just might have had some merit.
Instead you sank to their level and when you got what you wanted it was YOU who “backed off” for personal gain.
Nothing Moral in that and certainly nothing to be proud of, at all. Self-praise is no praise, at all.
I think that you and I must live in different realities Fred. You carry on paying whatever they tell you to pay and I will continue to ask questions and require full disclosure and clarification.
Who says I pay ? Curious how you make assumption whereas I only go on what you have written here.
You have quite clearly stated you gathered information with which to threaten the council and it is for this reason alone that you successfully ended any dialogue with them.
Deny it and try to dress it up any way you like but anyone reading this knows precisely what you did, why and just how shameful it really is.
If you have a conscience then on that be it.
“You managed to escape liability for council tax by blackmailing the council. Uh…ok.”
1. No. As the the council has not shown any AUTHORITY or PROOF OF CLAIM that there is any liability to pay council tax
2. No. As the sentient human being can NOT under ANY circumstances be liable to pay council tax. Only a construct in the ‘system’ ie a NAME can be liable
3. No. As a supposed DEBT as implied by (the invalid suposed COUNCIL TAX ‘Bill’ can be paid with a debt not
4. No. What is the definition of ‘blackmail’? “Demand money from (a person) in return for not revealing compromising or injurious information” . Given that the blog states “I stated that I was going to go to the media with the figures and FOIA and he asked me not to do this as “something could be sorted out”. How can stating an intention to share further information which by definition is or should be PUBLIC, perpetrated by supposedly PUBLIC organisation then to WHOM exactly this “compromising or injurious”? If everything is lawful and legal (which it obviously is not) then how can it possibly be blackmail?
Oh, semantics ? Nah, not playing.
This blogger has clearly stated that the media being provided with information, public or otherwise that had escaped such widespread notice thus far, would prove so compromising or injurious to the authority concerned that they felt compelled to shut him up and did so with favour granted.
Speculation as to why they felt so threatened, under the circumstances, is irrelevant to the definition of Blackmail. Fact is, they did and acted accordingly. He accepted their terms to keep schtum in a heartbeat. How traiterous to a “Moral” cause.
It’s all there for you to read precisely what happened. To be honest I’m really surprised I have to explain this to someone who can quite clearly read and write/type.
Comprehension is evidently not a strong point.
LMAO at the blackmail muppets …
He simply refuses to pay and asked questions.
Only people using semantics are the ones twisting it around to state he blackmailed them …
Well Fred, my comprehension was obviously more enlightened than yours since I defeated those that came against me!
There was no blackmail, just two men speaking with each other, one was myself and the other was the Financial Director of the Council. Once the points that I speak about in the article were raised he went from thinking he was in charge of the meeting to being very, very concerned, he actually went silent and stopped talking about the acts and the statutes concerned. The Tory councillor, who was not my choice, had to attend to witness for the council and myself what was actually taking place since they would not allow a minute taker to attend the meeting.
Once the FD was provided with the information that I had, he bricked it and he knew that the council were in the wrong in the way that they appoint bailiffs and collect council tax. I firmly believe that this particular man had no idea that threats and intimidation were being used against people living in the area of his remit.
Freemen and Sovereigns might have taken a different route regarding how I dealt with people trying to extort monies from me but I did what I did with the knowledge that I had at that time.
AND YOU KNOW WHAT FRED?
They left me well alone after this.
Hi,
I just wanted to ask if your employment status had anything to do with the eventual outcome? People on low income can reasonably make a claim for Council Tax exemption.
Those who work in state organisations (such as the NHS) may also be less able to take their stand due to the pressure that can be applied within as well as the professional bodies and their claims that you have fallen below the standard if you have failed to pay a bill.
Just wanting to look at this and find the best way for me to counter this generally crap tax (although some of it goes to employ ordinary people of good heart and mind).
I think he would have known if he’d made a claim for council tax benefit which isn’t an exemption as you suggest. It is a means tested benefit paid towards the bill on behalf of the claimant as opposed to just reducing the bill.
This goes to show how corrupt the system is if they are prepared to wiped your bill… for whatever reason. I’ve heard of people getting under the skin of the TV Licence company and achieving similar results.
I claim no benefits at all, the word benefit is a total screw up. If I pay into a system of insurance that will provide protection should something go awry then I do not have a benefit, I have an entitlement.
As such I claim no benefit nor entitlement from any state body.
The people better wake up to what’s going on. The entire sysystem is being corporised. They a leaving a very thin veneer of civil servants and under that all will be corporate!!! This ensures that money is syphened out of the public system and into private pockets. The aim being to eliminate the middle classes, council tax is just part of that scam. Ask your self why the forms going out for single person tax allouances in Scotland have to be returned to a private compay in England. Northgate Public Services, Po Box 152
Twickenham. If you look at this company and and the others that government deal with you’ll find names like Northgate and Serco. Serco have staff in government department, run prisons etc and opperate in 14 countries. Why is our supposed representatives giving this kind of access to international corporate entities. Do you think it’s to give you a better deal?
Don’t encourage them, don’t vote for them, demand answers, they are two faced liars and cheats and like the gangsters they are they just want your money.
Yes I agree the people should wake up to what is going on.
What Hope when councils are riding roughshod over people who don’t know any better and at least one of those that DOES know better can be bought off for the price of their council tax bill ?
Hope is that the majority have a much higher price or, better yet, will not sell out the rest of us at any price.
What you perceive as your own comprehension obviously differs from mine Fred.
Whilst you type endlessly late at night and expect me or others to take you seriously is beyond me, unless you are being paid to type!
Fred, have you ever done anything and said NO I will not do what you order? Have you ever stood for anything, have you ever had morals or do you even understand what morals are? Not theological morals but real morals that you live by?
I was not bought off, so get off of your high fucking horse, I made those that were interfering with my right to a roof over my head vanish, END OF.
Now tell me this Frederick, when was the last time that you decided to say no using statutes? When was the last time that you decided to say no using acts? When was the last time that you decided to say no using common law?
Have you ever done it at all?
Have you even dipped a toe into the legal waterfountain?
Since you seem to have an opinion on every comment Frederick, please provide any legal or lawful basis for said comments. I would really love to see those.
On that note have a nice trolling day.
Fred, you seem to believe that the mainstream media are even slightly interested in reporting on the illegality of council tax. If Pete had gone to the tabloids, I’d put a sizeable bet on them not doing anything with the information he gave them.
Blogs like this are how the information on the freeman/woman movement have reached people, not from mainstream media.
I’m in the process of trying to convince my father not to pay this illegal, immoral tax (he feels he’s older now, and although he can see how wrong it is, says he’s too old to fight), and when that battle starts, I can assure you if I approach any newspaper – even a local one – about what’s happening, they’ll ignore it. What I will do to compensate is share it online, where more people will see it, and it can be easily shared.
It’s too easy to be cynical, but blackmail this is not. Blackmail would be “Stop taxing me OR I’ll take this to the media.” He did/said no such thing. He stated that he was going to go to the media. And he has. To the most powerful medium in use today; the one the government is terrified of, and is trying to censor. The net.
Fair comments by all. I too would like to see what Fred has done.
Its time that people start to join together & help one another – share information for the benefit of all – Pete, you have shared and I thank you!
Fred – please share too.
If we don’t share and stick together were going to have a hard time of it over the coming years.
We are the majority and we act like we are a minority. Because the family unit & our communities have been disrupted we behave in a fearful isolated way – we have unlearned vital community behavior that allowed us as a race to overcome the difficulties of existence through an extensive conditioning programme and governmental constraints on society.
The authorities must laugh when they see our quibbling.
Regards to all and happy sharing.
well said! we need to go with non compliance, a peaceful lawful rebellion
Brilliant!
I am not known as a freewoman on the land, but shouldn’t need labels or titles to be one, it’s only my ‘person’ that is bound to this evil system.
For the definition of a ‘person’ watch John Harris’s ‘It’s an illusion’ and another video I would recommend is ‘Freeman in court fighting council tax’ parts 1 and 2.
We are caught up in a legal system which has replaced the natural laws of the land and sentient beings. We need to rise up and take back what is rightfully ours… OUR LIVES!
Hardly surprising that corruption continues when there are morons like Fred about.
Thank you.
I have tried to play by the rules and have been left totally frustrated and broken by the experience. Recently Oxford city council sent me 3 bills for council tax. One was for the current year and the other 2 were for the two previous years I have lived here. This was the first time I was even aware I had to pay council tax as I work for myself and only earn a very small amount. They demanded all the money immediatly despite the fact this was their administrive cock up (I’ve always provided full and honest details of my circumstances). I booked an appointment to see them about making an arrangement to pay the amount they told me I was owing. I naively thought by explaining my situation and being honest would lead to a conclusion beneficial to all concerned. Not so! I was told pay up on their terms or go to court. I explained that paying back at such a rate would leave me with the princely sum of 50p to live on each week. I was treated like a fraud and a criminal even though I had done nothing wrong. I’ve always prided myself on my integrity and honesty but now found myself totally disarmed by a public service (what a misnomer) I was trying to communicate with. I have been continuously lied to on numerous occasions at all levels throwing up excuses after excuses and trying to blame me for the problem which I have had to waste time by repeatedly disproving time after time. I feel physically sick that these institutions are bullying and threatening the people they were meant to help. I am sick of worrying about a situation these people have created and the threating nature of these bodies – all for a situation they have created in the first place. I am seriously contemplating your course of action because of this and have no sympathy at all when they complain in the media about losing their pensions. Well done city council for turning an honest man into a criminal.
Paul, I do not view you as being dishonest at all. I am just pleased that you now realise the scam that is being used against us all with this tax. I chose to fight it and whatever you choose to do is your business. There is plenty of information out there on how to contest this tax. I chose my own route and I had many failures along the way, but I have learned from the mistakes. Best of luck .
I actually feel that these institutions and many others have been completely corrupted of any semblance of their original social purposes into something not much better than a debt collection agencies. All our public institutions are being replaced by orwellian newspeak organisations that have no ethical ideals or purpose in which the abstract concepts of efficiency and profit rule supreme. It’s scary and most of us are allowing this to happen with our complacency. I think it’s time for me to stand up and be counted.
Hi ya,I have received my reply from fife council in scotland in regards to CT,but I’m not sure of the right questions to ask.Which/What questions did you put to a scottish council?
here’s their reply :
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/117057/response/286682/attach/html/3/FOI%20FCIR%202564%20Rresponse.doc.html
Let me know what is the best action to take against the
fred dread
well done, sir. Blooming well done!