posted on 26 August 2020, updated on 01 January 0001
The government has released updated collection rates and receipts for council tax and non-domestic rates in England for 2019/20. These have been updated and added as a new table 7 in Council tax arrears and write-offs: 2015/16 to 2019/20 and a new table 8 in Non-domestic rates arrears and write-offs: 2015/16 to 2019/20.
By the end of March 2020, local authorities had collected £31.1bn of council tax that related to 2019/20 and achieved an average in-year collection rate of 96.8%, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points over 2018/19.
As payments are spread across the year and less tax tends to be collected in the final quarter (January to March) of the tax year, the 2019/20 figures are not yet significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some authorities have reported that they scaled back collection activity, including collecting and writing off arrears, in late February and March due to pressures arising from the pandemic. Authorities also indicated less businesses prepaid their non-domestic rates bill at the end of the year.
You can find the full list of tables on the gov.uk website.