Council Tax Collection Statistics 2012-13

Table 1: Summary of reported amounts of Council Tax billed and received: Scotland

Source: Information supplied by Councils to Scottish Government on the statistical return Council Tax and Community Charge Receipts (CTRR)

*Note that years prior to 2012-13 are closer to final collection rates as councils have had longer to collect late payments. The 2012-13 collection rate is understandably lower since it is effectively the in-year collection rate (i.e. before any late payments).

• All figures are Net of discounts (e.g. single persons discount), exemptions and surcharges (although not all councils can exclude surcharges - see below). The figures are BEFORE any amounts written off for bad or doubtful debt. They reflect any correction to liabilities following billing.
• Up to and including 1995-96 the figures for amounts billed and collected include Council Water Charges
• Dumfries and Galloway has only provided figures from 1996-97 onwards
• Surcharges: Councils are asked to exclude surcharges, although this is not always possible. For years prior to 1996-97, surcharges have been included for Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Eilean Siar, Fife, North Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders and Shetland Islands.

2005-06 onwards - Figures include additional amounts in respect of reduced Second Home/Long Term Empty property discount

Table 1

In Table 1, the net council tax billed and the amount received by 31 March 2013 are shown dating back to 1993-94 when Council Tax was introduced. The years 1993-94 to 1995-96 were before the re-organisation of local government in Scotland, and the data for these years are combined. The reorganisation had a number of implications for authorities and so these pre-re-organisation figures cannot be directly compared to those in later years under continuing authorities.

The net amount billed rises steadily from £1.002 billion in 1996-97 to £1.935 billion in 2007-08 principally due to increases in council tax levels, but with an additional smaller increase due to growth in the tax base (predominantly due to an increase in the number of dwellings). In 2007-08 the Scottish Government introduced a freeze in the council tax, and this is reflected in the data, where the net amount billed flattens off after 2007-08, with the small increases observed being due to growth in the tax base only.

It should be noted that Table 1 shows the amount and percentage collected as at 31 March 2013. For earlier years there has been a comparatively long time to collect any late payments, whereas for later years (particularly 2012-13), there has been less time to collect late payments. This is likely to be the main reason why the "percentage received at 31 March 2013" data show slightly lower percentages received for the later years. For the earlier years, it is unlikely that much more council tax will be collected hence, for these years, the percentages received are close to final collection rates. Excluding the effect on later years described above, no clear trend is seen in percentage received with all years before 2011-12 showing percentages received of between 96.2% and 96.9% (including the combined period 1993-94 to 1995-96).