Council Tax collection rates

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), the umbrella body for Scotland’s 32 local authorities has warned that uncertainty over the economy and changes to the welfare system could reverse years of improving council tax collection rates.

Council tax collection rates rose again in the past year, up by 0.2% on the previous 12 months, despite more than £1 billion having gone unpaid since the charge began 18 years ago.

For 2010-11, £1.86bn was paid by March 31 from the total bill of £1.97bn.

Differences remain among local authorities, with taxpayers in Glasgow only paying 92.3% last year compared with a 97.6% total in Orkney.

Dundee recorded the highest increase with a collection improvement of 91.4% to 93% over the past year.The average percentage of bills collected annually across Scotland’s 32 councils increased from about 87.2% in 1998-99 to 94.6%.

The article in the Herald newspaper can be found here.

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