Decision details

That the Executive agree both the Council Tax Recovery Policy attached as Appendix A, and the Business Rates Recovery Policy attached as Appendix B to the Director of Corporate Services’ report for immediate implementation

There are a variety of debt recovery options available for both Council Tax and Business Rates and most of these options are utilised routinely by the Revenue Services Team at the present time in order to collect outstanding debts.

There are, however, harsher powers of recovery (as detailed in paragraph 5.1 of the Director of Corporate Services’ report) that are not currently exercised in Bracknell Forest and it is therefore deemed that Executive approval of these methods should be obtained in order to employ these powers going forward.

When debts reach a stage where one of the aforementioned harsher methods is deemed to be appropriate, it is likely that the taxpayer is an evasive and serial non-payer. It will mean that the debt is a significant size and that the debtor is unwilling to make contact or to make any reasonable payments towards their debt.  When a debt reaches this point the only alternative option to consider, if a harsh recovery power is not to be used, is writing the debt off. All write offs must be authorised by the Borough Treasurer or a Group Accountant under delegated powers.

Writing off these types of debt will give serial non-payers the impression that Bracknell Forest is unable or willing to pursue them for outstanding debts and could create a culture of non-payment. The act of writing debts off would also create bad feeling and potentially generate complaints from taxpayers who do make their payments as required and feel aggrieved that those who don’t pay are not sufficiently pursued

None.

None.