Residents in the Vale of White Horse are being encouraged to sign up to receive their council tax bill by email to help save money, and those who do so will be entered in a draw to have their entire 2012/13 council tax paid for them. It costs more than £64,000 each year for South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils to print and send out council tax bills and leaflets. To save money the two councils are aiming to get as many people as possible signed up to receive their council tax bill by email before February next year. When people sign up to receive bills by email, a system known as e-billing, it saves money through the reduced need for paper, printing and postage. To encourage people to sign up for e-billing the councils have agreed to pay the entire 2012/13 council tax bill for two residents (one from each district) drawn randomly from the e-billing list, including the portions of the bill allocated to other service providers such as the police, county and town councils. To enter the draw, council tax payers simply need to sign up to receive their bills by email by Tuesday 31 January. Please note that e-billing is only suitable for those paying council tax by direct debit, credit or debit card. Anyone who has already signed up will automatically be entered into the draw. Council tax payers who wish to sign up for e-billing should go to e-billing competition. Cllr Matthew Barber, Leader of the Vale of White Horse District Council said: “This is a fantastic chance for two council tax payers to win the opportunity to have their entire 2012/13 bill paid for them. We are very keen to reduce the amount of money we spend each year on printing and postage, so hopefully anyone who hasn’t already done so should sign up.” He added: “If every council tax payer who has access to email signs up to e-billing then we could put the money that we spend on sending out bills and council tax leaflets to much better use.”