Council Tax collection statistics: 2021-2022

2. Council Tax collection rates

Source: Up to 2012-13 - Audit Scotland Statutory Performance Indicators; From 2013-14 - Council Tax Receipts Return (CTRR)

The figures exclude Council Tax Benefit/Reduction and Water and Sewerage Charges. They are before any amounts written off for bad or doubtful debt and reflect any correction to liabilities following billing. Figures for 2021-22 are provisional.

Local authorities have reported their collection rates on a 'line by line' accounting basis for: (a) 2011-12 (b) 2012-13 (c) 2013-14 (d) 2014-15 (e) 2015-16 (f) 2016-17 (g) 2017-18 (h) 2018-19 (i) 2019-20 (j) 2020-21 (k) 2021-22Table 2 shows the Council Tax in-year collection rates - that is, the amount of Council Tax collected by the end of the relevant billing year, as a percentage of billed Council Tax. In-year collection rates have increased steadily from 87.2 per cent for Scotland as a whole in 1998-99; to 94.7 per cent in 2010-11; to 95.7 per cent in 2021-22. The 2020-21 in-year collection rate (94.8 per cent) was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as Councils suspended debt recovery process and actions to avoid contributing to financial pressure on Council Tax payers, but the collection rate for 2021-22 is more in line with pre-pandemic collection rates. The longer-term trend may in part be due to local authorities' more efficient and timely collection methods (for example, increasing use of direct debit and other 'electronic' methods).

Improvements in the last decade are particularly clear for the local authorities which previously had the lowest rates of in-year collection. For example, the in-year collection rate for Glasgow City improved substantially from 92.3 per cent in 2010-11 to 93.9 per cent in 2021-22.

The trends described above are illustrated in Chart 2, which shows the gradually increasing in-year collection rate, along with the impact of Covid-19 on 2020-21 collection rates.

Source: Council Tax Receipts Return (CTRR)

All figures are net of discounts (e.g. single person discount), exemptions and surcharges. The figures exclude Council Tax Benefit/Reduction and Water and Sewerage Charges. They are before any amounts written off for bad or doubtful debt and reflect any correction to liabilities following billing.Table 3 shows the percentage of Council Tax for specific billing years, received by 31 March 2022. For 2021-22 this is the same as the in-year collection rate but, for other years, this includes late payments collected and adjustments to previous years bills in years after the billing year. For the earlier years, it is unlikely that much more Council Tax will be collected - hence, for these years, the percentages received are converging towards final collection rates. Previous research has indicated that deprivation is linked to non-payment of Council Tax and this is likely to be a factor in variations between local authorities of these near-final collection rates for earlier years.

Table 4 gives a further representation of improvements in the in-year collection rate over the last decade, from 94.7 per cent for Scotland as a whole in 2010-11 to 96.0 per cent or just under in the years 2015-16 to 2021-22 (with the exception of 2020-21, as a result of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic). Correspondingly, the percentages of Council Tax being collected aftereach billing year have fallen sharply, from 2.8 per cent for the 2010-11 billing year to 0.9 per cent for the 2019-20 billing year. This pattern is a direct consequence of two factors – there is less Council Tax still left to collect, and less time has elapsed to collect it in.

Table 5 shows an alternative presentation of in-year and subsequent collection rates. The upper diagonal shows the in-year collection rate for Scotland as a whole and the table should be read by selecting a column and reading downwards. For example, for billing year 2010-11 (the left-most column of figures) the in-year collection rate was 94.7 per cent. By the end of the next year (2011-12), the collection rate had risen to 95.9 per cent. It had risen to 96.3 per cent by the end of 2012-13, then more slowly to 97.5 per cent by 2021-22. This pattern is shown in Chart 3.

Taking these collection rates together, the overall pattern for Scotland is:

• In-year collection is now well over 95 per cent, with the exception of 2020-21 when the collection rate dipped below 95 per cent due to being adversely impacted by measures put in place to support Council Tax payers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• A further 0.5 per cent or so is collected in the following year.
• 'Final' collection rate can reasonably be expected to exceed 97 per cent.

Table 4: In-year Council Tax percentage received and total Council Tax percentage received as at 31 March 2022, by year to which the bill refers

Source: In-year to 2012-13 - Audit Scotland Statutory Performance Indicators; From 2013-14 - Council Tax Receipts Return (CTRR)

All figures are net of discounts (e.g. single person discount), exemptions and surcharges. The figures exclude Council Tax Benefit/Reduction and Water and Sewerage Charges. They are before any amounts written off for bad or doubtful debt and reflect any correction to liabilities following billing.

Source: In-year to 2012-13 - Audit Scotland Statutory Performance Indicators; From 2013-14 - Council Tax Receipts Return (CTRR)

All figures are net of discounts (e.g. single person discount), exemptions and surcharges. The figures exclude Council Tax Benefit/Reduction and Water and Sewerage Charges. They are before any amounts written off for bad or doubtful debt and reflect any correction to liabilities following billing.