Some things on Zack Polanski’s council tax ‘mistake’, which is apparently far more important than Farage allegedly taking an under-the-table £5 million bung from a crypto billionaire.
The “tax expert” quoted in the media is Dan Neidle. Neidle served on Labour’s National Constitutional Committee from 2022 to 2025, which is the party’s disciplinary body. He also remains a member of the party.
Without mentioning the specific moorings for security reasons, they were leisure moorings. Meaning:
Leisure moorings generally do not attract separate council tax.
Permanently occupied residential/liveaboard moorings can become liable if the boat is someone’s “sole or main residence”.
Polanski also rented a room in a house in the area during this period, with council tax included in the rent.
Most boats are treated as leisure moorings within the marina’s business rates setup. Simply “living on a boat” does not automatically trigger council tax.
The legal test is whether it was someone’s “sole or main residence”, judged from all the circumstances.
Clearly, this was not Polanski’s sole or main residence, and he was already paying council tax as part of the rent on the room he occupied in the area.
The assertion in the media appears to be Polanski and partner referring to the boat as ‘their wonderful home’. I once owned a cabin in Northumberland exempt from council tax (like the boat moorings) with my then partner, which I also referred to as home; I still paid council tax on a one-bedroom flat in Heaton that we had, though.
This is a non-story whipped up by bad actors serving billionaire interests to smear Polanski because he wants people to have nice things.
Meanwhile, imagine if even a small percentage of this level of scrutiny was directed at Farage, and please do ask yourself why this has not happened, whether you like Polanski or not.
