Section 32: Amount for personal community charges., Local Government Finance Act 1988

For each chargeable financial year, a charging authority shall set for its personal community charges an amount or amounts in accordance with this section and section 33 below.

Any amount must be set on or before 1 April on which the financial year for which it is set begins, but is not invalid merely because it is set after that date.

No amount may be set before the earlier of the following—

1 March in the financial year preceding that for which the amount is set;

the date of the issue to the authority of the last precept capable of being issued to it for the financial year for which the amount is set.

No amount may be set unless the authority has calculated an amount in relation to the year under section 95(4) below.

A purported setting of an amount, if done in contravention of subsection (2A) or (2B) above, shall be treated as not having occurred.

In setting any amount the authority must secure (so far as practicable) that the total amount yielded by its community charges for the year is sufficient to provide for the items mentioned in subsection (4) below, to the extent that they are not to be provided for by other means.

The items are—

any precept issued to the authority for the year,

the authority's estimate of the aggregate of the payments to be met from its collection fund in the year under section 90(2)(b) to (g) below or section 90(4)(b) and (c) below (as the case may be),

the amount calculated (or last calculated) by the authority in relation to the year under section 95(4) below, and

the authority's estimate of the amount to be transferred from its collection fund in the year under section 98(4) below.

In construing subsection (4)(a) above any precept for which another has been substituted shall be ignored.

Where the authority is a relevant charging authority, for the purposes of subsection (2A) above no account shall be taken of any precept capable of being issued to it by a relevant precepting authority.

For the purposes of subsection (6) above a district council, the Common Council and the Council of the Isles of Scilly are relevant charging authorities, and—

in relation to a district council, a relevant precepting authority is any parish or community council, chairman of a parish meeting or charter trustees with power to issue a precept to the district council;

in relation to the Common Council, a relevant precepting authority is the sub-treasurer of the Inner Temple or the under-treasurer of the Middle Temple;

in relation to the Council of the Isles of Scilly, a relevant precepting authority is any parish council or chairman of a parish meeting with power to issue a precept to the Council.

Section 32: Amount for personal community charges.

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