@jarobertson93 , like to clarify some thing from the above reply ---- as I understand your situation:
(a) you are a student ( possibly with scholarship / grant etc ) in the UK
(b) you a US person ( citizen/ Green Card holder)
(c) you rent a place, use it as your main residence (? ) and are subject to council tax ( in addition to rent)
(d) your question now is if there is a way to deduct this "tax" ( used to be called pole tax in Thatcher's time ) on your US tax filings.
We have no data on your income in the UK but assuming that scholarship / grant is the totality of it , then when you fill out US return , you file as student i.e. you get to deduct your education fees and expenses from you income --- the only income that is then taxable to US is your living expenses.
Generally you can indeed exclude some income under Foreign Earned Income exclusion ( but I doubt it would be worth while because your grant exclusive of educational fees and expenses is not likely to be above your standard deduction. Also note that the above comment on "Housing Expense " is at odds with my understanding of the law ( and I have been expat for many many years ) --- generally your Foreign Earned Income ( eligible for exclusion ) includes actual wages, housing assistance from the employer as an expat, COLA because of higher cost in the UK compared to Washington DC , etc. and thus this is not an extra amount beyond the maximum allowable foreign earnings exclusion amount =--- even though I doubt this is applicable to any student.
Bottom line of all this is that, while you cannot deduct the council tax ( which is not on income), you may not even need to itemize, --- if I am wrong on my assumptions of the situation, please give me some details of your income from UK sources, from US sources - we are after world income in addition to the UK only income, your educational expenses etc. --- I am ready to work through the scenario and see what is the best possible path for you -- please no Personally Identifiable Information -- this is open to public.
pk
