Pay your Council Tax by direct debit – and make life easier

PR2024024 - 16/10/2024

Around 80% of residents in Mid Sussex pay their council tax by direct debit. Now Mid Sussex District Council is encouraging more people to switch and pay the same way. 

 

Cllr Simon Hicks, Cabinet Member for Finance, Revenue and Benefits, said: “Direct debit is the easiest and most efficient way of paying your council tax. You have a choice of three dates for payment and you can pay over 10 or 12 months as well as annually or bi-annually. 

 

“Most of our residents choose direct debit because it’s easy, safe and secure. We never take more than the amount you have to pay and it renews automatically each year. It also keeps our administration costs down.” 

 

Paying by direct debit also means residents never get into arrears with payments. For those who are in arrears, we have now introduced text messaging, emails and calls, as a reminder to pay before we need to go through a formal process of recovering the outstanding amount of council tax. 

 

When reminder texts are sent, the message will appear from ‘MidSussexDC’ and will include the person’s name then ask them to click on a link to verify their identity. After entering their postcode, they will be taken to a page with their council tax reference number and the amount that is outstanding. 

 

For emails, the message will be sent from email@revenue.midsussex.gov.uk 

 

Cllr Hicks added: “We are aware of scam text messages that have been sent to people about parking fines and so would like to reassure our residents that we do not send out text messages asking for payment for anything other than outstanding council tax amounts.” 

All reminders will give alternative ways to pay the outstanding amount including setting up a direct debit.  

 

For further information on how to pay by direct debit, go to www.midsussex.gov.uk and search “how to pay”.