West Dunbartonshire plan to name businesses which fail to pay taxes approved

The move approved by the Corporate Services Committee this week is intended to raise awareness of a small number of companies avoiding paying their Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) and will see the business’ details published on the Council website and highlighted via social media.

In some cases the firms cease trading and have the debt written off, only for the owners launch a new company delivering similar services, often referred to as phoenix companies.

The Council’s corporate debt team will give businesses a fixed amount of time to pay off their charges, in line with NDR recovery legislation.

A final recovery notice will be issued six months after the first instalment is due and thereafter if the debt is not settled a summary warrant will be sought. Where payment is still not received, the Council will publish the name, type of business, address, period of default and the total amount due.

It is intended that the move will lead to businesses working better with the Council to take advantage of the supports available to them and settle their bills, before getting to the stage of being named online.

The first publication is likely to be in January 2019.

Councillor Ian Dickson, Convener of Corporate Services at the council, said: “We are keen to do everything we can to support businesses in our area but it has to be a level playing field and firms which don’t pay their debts disadvantage other businesses and ultimately cost everyone, and last year it amounted to over £1million.

“This has been something which we’ve been keen to do for some time and there was unanimous support from the committee for this move. By publicising the companies which don’t pay we will also be helping residents make informed decisions about the businesses they engage with.”

Councillor Iain McLaren, Vice-Convener of Corporate Services, added: “We will make every attempt to engage with businesses in our area. We understand that companies, can experience challenges and we will support them. We will only take this step where businesses have repeatedly ignored our requests for payment. It is very much a last resort for the Council.”

NDR, also known as business rates, is a property based tax charged to businesses based on a property’s rated value.

All local authorities collect the rates and the money is pooled in a national central fund, controlled by the Scottish Government.

Each authority is then given a grant from this fund through the Local Government Finance settlement.