Understanding rates

While Council's income from rates forms the largest single portion of revenue, this is generally just over half of the organisation's overall income of $152 million.

Understanding how rates work and how are rates calculated can be quite confusing, however rates are determined in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act 1993.

To help make it easier to understand rates, we've created the following video as part of our Demystifying Council series.

In Maitland, rates and charges make up between 55-60% of Council’s total income each year. And while rates collectively generate a significant amount of money for services and infrastructure, rates income can't cover everything. The balance of Council's income is made up of grant and development contribution funding, user fees and charges, as well as interest and investment revenue.

The special rate variation (SRV) that was approved for Maitland City Council for 7 years has now concluded. Rates now increase each financial year by the amount determined by IPART as the increase in rates for all Councils across NSW. This is known as the ‘rate peg’. The rate peg for 2021/22 is 2.0%.

rates faqs

A list of rates FAQs is available here.