Financial Information

End of Year Accounts and Audit

Precept

The Precept is the element of your Council Tax that is paid to Witherley Parish Council.

Every year, the Parish Council draws up budgets and calculates how much money it needs for the next Financial Year. These are then submitted to Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council. HBBC co-ordinate the other demands from Leicestershire County Council, Police and themselves and come up with the rate to be paid from 1st April that year.

Budget

The Parish Council will agree the budget for the year usually at the December meeting, by latest the January meeting.

From the budget discussions the Council decides the level of Precept to request from Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council.

January 2017 meeting will decide both the budget and the precept levels.

Payment Schedules

The Parish publishes a monthly list of payments made in the Finance section of the Minutes each month. These can be viewed in documents

Councillor Expenses & Payments

In England, a local council may pay a basic allowance for each year to its chairman only or to each of its elected Councillors (but not to Councillors who have been co-opted). The amount paid to the chairman may differ from that of other Councillors (i.e. a higher sum may be paid in light of the extra duties and responsibilities that are required of the chairman) but otherwise the sum shall be the same for each Councillor.

A basic allowance paid to a Councillor is not a salary but it is treated by HMRC as taxable income. A council is obliged to deduct income tax, where appropriate, under the PAYE system. A council may also pay Councillors and co-opted Councillors travelling and subsistence allowances.

The payment of Councillors' allowances is subject to a cumbersome statutory process which involves a local remuneration (independent of the local council) panel, whose role is to make recommendations as to the level of the various allowances that a council can pay.

As an alternative to paying the chairman or all Councillors an allowance, a council in England and Wales has a separate power in the Local Government Act 1972 (s.15 p5) to make payments to the Chairman which allow him to meet the expenses associated with his special office; phone calls, meetings with the clerk, or other chairman/third parties while representing the council, or other expenses for hospitality at events. Where a council has decided the annual budget for a chairman's allowance it must also decide when it will make such payments e.g. on demand, quarterly or biannually.

Many councils do not pay allowances and for those that do it is usually a rather modest sum.

Witherley Parish Council does not pay Councillors or the chairman any allowance, it does however pay the HMRC travelling subsistence rate of 45p per mile for journeys undertaken for council business, and remunerates any authorised expenditure incurred on behalf of the council.

All audited accounts detailing all council expenditure and income are available to be viewed on this website, and in person at certain times of the year advertised here and on notice boards by law.

Financial Regulations