This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Council Tax Collection Statistics 2005
17/06/2005
Statistics on the collection of Council Tax (CT) for 2004-05 and previous years were published today by the Scottish Executive.
The key points are:
- In 2004-05, for Scotland as a whole, the total amount of Council Tax billed (excluding Council Tax Benefit) was £1.671 billion. Of this total, £1.549 billion was collected by 31 March 2005.
- This represents a provisional Scotland total in-year CT collection rate for 2004-05 of 92.7 per cent, a 1.0 percentage point increase from the previous year (see table 2).
- Overall, since 1993-94, the total amount of Council Tax billed in Scotland was £14.868 billion, of which £14.107 billion, or 94.9 per cent, was collected by 31 March 2005.
- Provisional in-year CT collection rates for 2004-05 range from a low of 85.6 per cent in Glasgow, to a high of 97.3 per cent in Orkney.
- These provisional figures suggest that 29 out of 32 councils have improved their in-year CT collection rate in 2004-05. Only Orkney (-0.5 percentage points), South Ayrshire (-0.2 percentage points) and Stirling (no change) have not improved upon the 2003-04 figures published by Audit Scotland. The in-year Council Tax collection rate is a Statutory Performance Indicator. The figures for 2004-05 in this Statistics Publication Notice are provisional, pre-audit estimates. Audited figures will be published by Audit Scotland in due course.
DATA SOURCES
The Scottish Executive's Council Tax, Non-Domestic Rates and Community Charge Receipts Return (CTRR) collects data from Local Authorities on the total amounts of Council Tax billed and the total amounts collected for all years from 1993-94 to date, and is the source of all the data in Tables 1 to 5, with the exception of the in-year collection rates in Table 2 for 1998-99 to 2003-04. The CTRR data is collected after the end of the financial year, but before audit and is therefore provisional.
The in-year collection rates in Table 2 for 1998-99 to 2003-04 are the published Statutory Performance Indicators produced by Audit Scotland. The 2004-05 in-year collection rates should be treated as provisional figures, with final audited figures for 2004-05 to be published by Audit Scotland.
All data are based on the actual amounts received from taxpayers, and are net of all discounts (e.g. 25 PER CENT single person discount) and exemptions. Surcharges are also excluded where possible, although some councils cannot do this (see footnotes in Tables for details.)
The figures exclude Council Tax Benefit, are before any amounts written off for bad or doubtful debt, and reflect any correction to liabilities made after billing.
Figures from 1993-94 to 1995-96 include the amounts billed and collected for Council Water Charges.
ENQUIRIES
Public enquiries about the information contained in this Statistical Publication Notice should be addressed to:
Statistical Support for Local Government Branch
Scottish Executive
Analytical Services Division
Area 2-J South
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ
Telephone: 0131 244 7033
E-mail: lgfstats@scotland.gsi.gov.uk