Council to write off £1.8 million in unpaid taxes
WEALDEN District Council has written off £1.8 million owed in tax.
This figure was revealed as the council published its accounts for the previous financial year.
In total, the council is owed £3,537,000 from council tax and business rates, up on £2,996,000 from the previous year.
But council spokesman Jim van den Bos insisted there was no major cause for concern.
"Although there has been an increase in the amount of council tax outstanding, as a percentage of the total due, it has hardly changed from one year to the next. The council continues to chase outstanding debts and help debtors to ensure that debts are cleared," he said.
One area where failure to pay has risen was with business rates, but Mr van den Bos explained the council was working with businesses to help them manage their finances during the recession and ensure amounts owed were paid.
The district council acts as the collecting authority for council tax, but this money is distributed between a number of organisations. The shortfall will be shared among these.
Wealden takes around 17 per cent of council tax, while 65 per cent goes to the county council, seven per cent to the police, five per cent to fire and rescue and five per cent to parish and town councils.
Mr van den Bos explained that, in calculating council tax, an assumption is made that only 98.5 per cent will be collected and so the authority was expected to deliver a certain amount of money to each group.
He admitted this meant that a serious shortfall could leave Wealden in difficulty but gave assurances this was not expected.
"The situation is closely monitored and, at present, there are no cashflow issues," he said.
A further potential problem is that the collecting authority receives a grant from central government to carry out their duties and this can be cut if they fail to meet government criteria, but Mr van den Bos was confident this would not happen.
Collection rates are closely monitored and it is not anticipated that Wealden will fail to meet its efficiency targets.
Comments
by Britax, Dorset
Sunday, July 26 2009, 8:36AM
“One of the main principles of this tax is "It is easy to collect" ??? so Heseltine said when he introduced this tax to House of Commons.
This is only one council and with £3.5 million unpaid it is the equivalent to 2,375 band 'D' properties being excused payment, imagine how many that would represent in just England alone, mind boggling.
But council spokesman Jim van den Bos insisted there was no major cause for concern. it has hardly changed from one year to the next, so much for the efficiency of his council and councillors. Would this be allowed in the private sector??
All those who are paying this tax should be kicking this council "up the backside" or are you just accepting that you can pay while others do not?”