Cornwall Council owed £9.5 million in unpaid taxes
It has been revealed that Cornwall Council has failed to collect £9.5 million in back taxes consisting of £6 million in council taxes and £3.5 million in business rates. This equates to around 2.5% of total income for the Cornwall Council and remarkably it is actually less than the 3% average across English county councils. However, this comes at a time when budgets are under pressure and the council has been forced to reduce its expenditure by £14 million in the current tax year.
The subject of unpaid and uncollected taxes is one which county councils around the UK are often unwilling to discuss and now we know why. Despite the fact that cost savings are having to be put in place it seems that many councils, while having not written off these funds, are owed tens of millions of pounds in unpaid taxes. Surely there must be a more efficient way in which taxes can be collected because at the moment every penny counts and many councils are struggling to maintain their services going forward.
Now more than ever the efficiency and the collection systems of county councils around the UK are coming under more scrutiny and cracks are starting to appear.
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