Council hit by £25,000 tax bill blunder
Thursday 10th September 2009, 12:00PM BST.
A Shropshire town council has been landed with a tax bill of £25,000 following a blunder, it emerged today.
Newport Town Council has been forced to make cuts to foot the bill after previous council staff failed to understand new legislation requiring the tax on a council workers’ pension scheme to be paid.
Payments made in 2006 to employees of Newport Town Council should have been subject to PAYE and National Insurance contributions but due to “human error” the deductions were not made.
Councillors have been directly hit as £1,000 had to be taken from their allowances to help pay the bill. The council has also cut £10,000 from a fund for the town’s cemetery and £4,300 from a staff bonus and retirement scheme.
Revenue and Customs demanded the council pay £25,875 in unpaid deductions and councillors called two private, emergency meetings in July to find the funds.
A further £3,075 has gone from additional street cleaning and £4,000 was taken from a pot kept for maintenance of the Guildhall.
The tax bill was mounting, unbeknown to councillors and the previous clerk, but last night the altered accounts were approved.
Town mayor Councillor Roy Scammell said: “This is a case of human error. There has been no wrongdoing by anyone.”
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Blunder!!! What about the complete waste of cash far exceeding £25k for so called traffic management??? Now being removed!
Looks like more bills for residents – and for what?
Regards
Victor Meldrew ;-)
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Another load of jobsworth muppets wasting our hard earned cash. Rest assured, they’ll be no recriminations or discipline. Perhaps a bonus?
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