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Waverley Borough Council Committee System - Committee Document

Meeting of the Executive held on 09/03/2004
ARREARS WRITE-OFFS FOR DECISION
NATIONAL NON-DOMESTIC RATES (OVER £5,000)


Summary & Purpose
This report refers to exempt information by virtue of which the public may be excluded during the item to which the report relates (see last item on the agenda), as specified in Paragraph 7 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, namely:-

Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (other than the authority)
Quality of Life Implications
Natural Resource Use
Pollution Prevention and Control
Biodiversity and Nature
Local Environment
Social Inclusion
Safe Communities
Local Economy
Natural
Resource Use
Pollution
Prevention and Control
Biodiversity
and Nature
Local
Environment
Social
Inclusion
Safe, Healthy
and Active
Communities
Local
Economy
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A


E-Government implications:

There are no e-government implications directly associated with this report.

Resource and legal implications:

There are no financial implications for Waverley. In accordance with recommended accounting practice, the Council maintains a provision for bad debts. This provision meets with audit requirements and is subject to annual review. The write-off in the table below is within the normal annual allowance for such items and is also within the allowance set by central government for losses on collection.
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Introduction and Background

1. Details of all cases shown below may be inspected by members prior to the meeting, on application to the Director of Finance.

2. The following sums are irrecoverable and are submitted for write-off approval. Since the last report on this subject, these arrears, in respect of the categories set out below, total £52,544.36.

Category
Number
Amount (£)
National Non-Domestic Rates552,544.36
Council Tax--
Sundry Debtors--
Community Charge--
Totals5£52,544.36

3. The above cases relate to outstanding non-domestic rates due from five debtors. In four of these cases, the ratepayers, limited companies, either ceased trading (2) without any assets or were insolvent (2) and unable to meet their liabilities, and in the fifth case the ratepayer, a sole trader, was declared bankrupt earlier in this financial year. As the total liability of each individual ratepayer exceeded any assets that may have been available for distribution to their creditors, the Council is unable to seek any further remedy to recover the outstanding balance. The amount to be written-off represents 0.2% of the net collectable debit for the current financial year.

Recommendation

That approval be given for the sum of £52,544.36 to be written off.
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Background Papers (DoF)

There are no background papers (as defined by Section 100D(5) of the Local Government Act 1972) relating to this report.
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Contact Officer:

Name: Mr T Carter Telephone: 01483 523099

E-Mail: tcarter@waverley.gov.uk
comms/executive/2003/2004/485 35936