# Detect tampered and deepfake Council Tax Bill > A council tax bill is the annual demand a UK local authority sends to the person liable for the property, setting out the charge, any reductions, and the payment schedule, and it is the country's default proof of address for banks, the Home Office, and the DVLA. That role makes address edits the characteristic fraud: a genuine bill from elsewhere with the address swapped to the one being proven. **Canonical URL:** https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/council_tax_bill **API document class:** `council_tax_bill` --- ## What a genuine council tax bill contains The bill names the liable person and the property, prints the annual charge band and amount, applies any discounts or reductions such as the single-person discount, and lays out the instalments. It is issued per property per year, so a household's file may hold the current year's bill plus reminders rather than monthly statements. Verification leans on coherence: the liable name should match the applicant, the address should be consistent across the file, and the authority and charge band should fit the property's story. A bill whose address block shows a font pass or realignment against the rest of the print is the classic swapped-address forgery. ## How council tax bill forgeries are made ### Address-block forensics The address is the target, substituted onto a genuine bill from another property. Baseline shifts, a changed font pass, or realigned lines inside the address block localise the edit. ### Liable-person coherence The bill names who is liable, and that name should match the applicant or a defensible household relationship. Mismatched liable names with no explanation undercut the proof. ### Authority and band plausibility Each authority prints its own layout, and band letters should fit the property's story. An authority that does not serve the claimed area, or a band that contradicts the property type, marks fabrication. ### Payment and discount arithmetic Instalments should sum to the net charge after discounts. Totals that fail the arithmetic, or a single-person discount on a file claiming additional adults, are internal contradictions. ## What TamperCheck checks on a council tax bill TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks across three layers and returns a risk score from 0 to 100 with plain-English findings tied to specific regions of the document. These three carry the most weight on this document class. ### Arithmetic reconciliation Stated totals are recomputed from their components, and running or cumulative figures are checked for continuity across periods. A single edited value breaks the chain even when the page still looks right. ### Table structure integrity Inserted and deleted rows leave structural artifacts behind: inconsistent spacing, misaligned columns, and formatting the visible table no longer accounts for. ### Letterhead, logo, and issuer plausibility Issuer branding is checked for resolution and compression consistency against the body text it sits on. A logo lifted from a website carries the signature of its source, not of the document. ### And many more checks The three above are the layers that carry the most weight on a council tax bill. Every upload runs the full suite of 200+ checks regardless of document class, spanning file structure and metadata, pixel-level forensics, font and text rendering, optical and print characteristics, provenance signals, AI-generation signatures, and many more checks. ## Who verifies a council tax bill, and why Banks, letting agents, GP surgeries, and driving-licence address checks. In each case the document is being used to unlock money, access, or a legal status, which is exactly what makes it worth forging. ## How to verify a council tax bill in 4 steps 1. **Collect the current bill.** Ask for the most recent bill or reminder, since proof of address means current liability rather than an old demand. 2. **Inspect the address block.** Look for baseline, font, and alignment changes in the address lines, the signature region of an address-swap forgery. 3. **Weigh the household.** Compare the liable name and any discounts against the household the file describes. 4. **Run a forensic check on the file.** The address block is a small edit on an otherwise genuine bill, which is why it works. TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks across the address block, the arithmetic, and authority conformance, returning a risk score from 0 to 100 with findings tied to specific regions of the image. ## Frequently asked questions ### Why is a council tax bill the default UK proof of address? It is issued by a public authority to the liable resident at the property, which makes it hard to obtain for an address you do not occupy. That is exactly why forgers edit the address on a genuine bill rather than fabricate the whole document. ### What is single-person discount on a council tax bill? It is the reduction applied where one adult alone is liable for the property. A bill claiming the discount while the file describes additional adults is an internal contradiction worth resolving before the address is accepted. ### How recent must a council tax bill be? Most verifiers want the current year's bill or a recent reminder, since liability runs year to year. An old bill proves a historical address at best, and a current-looking bill for a past year is a contradiction in itself. ### How does TamperCheck verify a council tax bill? TamperCheck inspects the address block for localised edits, recomputes the instalment arithmetic, and weighs the authority, band, and liable name against the file. It runs on a single REST endpoint, processes uploads ephemerally without storing them, and returns findings tied to specific regions. ## Related document types - TamperCheck Forensic Report: https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/forensic_analysis_report - Unknown: https://tampercheck.ai/documents-support/unknown --- Try TamperCheck now: https://tampercheck.ai/dashboard · Docs: https://tampercheck.ai/docs · Pricing: https://tampercheck.ai/pricing