Responding to COVID-19: insight, support and guidance

Business Rates Retention Resource Hub

Welcome to the joint Finance Advisory Network and CIPFA Benefits and Revenues Service resource hub for business rates retention.

We'll be using this page to signpost all our event materials on this topic, along with helpful links to key DLUHC and other websites, and to record everything we are finding out about this evolving topic.

Some older material may be out of date or superseded by new information. Please always look at the date on materials to assess their relevance.

FAN Collection Fund Accounting Models

To provide reassurance and support in your approach to collection fund accounting, FAN produces the Collection Fund Accounting Models to assist practitioners with the complexities of accounting for council tax and business rates. The models do not constitute official guidance but are intended to support practitioners in their understanding of the collection fund and subsequent general fund year-end accounting requirements.

The 2021/22 models are currently being updated.

Other resources

The Rough Guide to Collection Fund Accounting (last updated March 2022) covers accounting and budgeting for the collection fund and subsequent general fund implications, not only at year end but throughout the year. It also covers the considerations of monitoring and forecasting for collection fund and NNDR pooling, policy implications and case studies of the impact of business rates in option appraisals and decision making. This document is not official CIPFA guidance – hence its rough guide title – but a tool to hopefully complement the FAN council tax and NNDR accounting models for 2018/19.

Extract from LAAP Bulletin 15 – accounting requirements for community charge residual adjustments.

CIPFA event materials

  • Completing and Understanding the FAN Collection Fund Accounting Models (March 2019) – took practitioners through the spreadsheet models step by step to get the most from their use as a closedown tool and also a financial planning, budgeting and forecasting tool.
  • Completing and Accounting for the NNDR 3 2018/19 (March 2019) – took practitioners step by step through the route most conducive to completing the NNDR 3 2018/19 form, incorporating a fully worked example of the subsequent accounting required.
  • Completing and Accounting for the NNDR 3 2017/18 (March 2018) – took practitioners step by step through the route most conducive to completing the NNDR 3 2017/18 form, incorporating a fully worked example of the subsequent accounting required.
  • Completing and Accounting for the NNDR 3 2016/17 (March 2017) – took practitioners step by step through the route most conducive to completing the NNDR 3 2016/17 form, incorporating a fully worked example of the subsequent accounting required.
  • Completing and Understanding the FAN Collection Fund Accounting Models (March 2017) – took practitioners through the spreadsheet models step by step to get the most from their use as a closedown tool and also a financial planning, budgeting and forecasting tool.
  • Completing and Accounting for the NNDR 3 2015/16 (April 2016) – took practitioners step by step through the route most conducive to completing the NNDR 3 2015/16 form, incorporating a fully worked example of the subsequent accounting required.
  • Completing and Understanding the FAN Collection Fund Accounting Models (April 2016) – took practitioners through the spreadsheet models step by step to get the most from their use as a closedown tool and also a financial planning, budgeting and forecasting tool.
  • Accounting for Pooling 2015/16 (September 2015)– considered the accounting entries for pooling authorities for 2015/16 and also the monitoring and forecasting considerations that pooled authorities should contemplate.
  • Council Tax Base and Introduction to Collection Fund Accounting (September 2015) – events covering the two subjects and including a briefing document on the principles of collection fund accounting.
  • Completing and Accounting for NNDR 3 2014/15 – this April 2015 series was a step-by-step walk-through of how to complete the NNDR 3 form for 2014/15, incorporating a fully worked example of the subsequent accounting required.
  • Closedown 2014/15 in March 2015 we covered the accounting requirements as we entered year two of the scheme, which included additional requirements from those of year one, as part of the wider series.
  • Accounting for Pooling 2014/15 – this series in December 2014 followed on the pooling series from 2013/14, allowing now experienced authorities and those new to pooling to share concerns and experiences, as well as cover the accounting implications, including those necessary as we entered year two of the scheme.
  • Collection Fund Accounting for Local Authorities in England Practitioner Workshops – an A-to-Z of accounting for the collection fund, council tax and NNDR that ran in October 2014.
  • Collection Fund Accounting for Revenues Practitioners – in September 2014 this half-day event aimed to provide revenues practitioners with an understanding of the principles behind collection fund accounting.
  • Closedown 2013/14 – the element of this series that ran in March 2014 focused on NNDR, followed on from the Accounting for the New NNDR Regime series, providing updates and new information on the accounting approach – including the spreading of backdated appeals – that wasn't available at the time of the earlier series.
  • Accounting for Pooling 2013/14 – this March 2014 series was set up as a networking and technical accounting event for all authorities that were in a business rates pool for the first time in 2013/14 or were thinking about it for 2014/15, including a case study of one authority's approach.
  • Accounting for the New NDR Regime – this series ran from November 2013 to January 2014 as a practical workshop approach to completing the expected accounting entries for the 2013/14 closedown. It gave practitioners a step-by-step, journal-by-journal approach to follow.
  • Business Rates Guide – Lancashire County Council – a document produced by Lancashire County Council in December 2013 based on the Accounting for NNDR series, summarising its application to the council. This document also considers budgetary implications of the new rates retention scheme. It was the basis for the closedown 2013/14 series pre-event reading document ‘Business Rates Guide – CIPFA & Lancashire CC pre-course reading'.
  • Local Government Financial Reform – Facing the Challenges this series ran in July 2013 and looked at the realities of the way that the changes being introduced by the Local Government Finance Act will have to be addressed by those implementing it on a daily basis.
  • Completing the NNDR1 Form – this short series ran in January 2013 and helped authorities understand the technical and strategic requirements of this piece of work.
  • Local Government Finance Bill series – this series ran in November 2012 and gave finance and revenues staff the opportunity to understand and consider the issues presented by business rates retention from a joint perspective.
  • Business Rates Retention – Joint Series with DCLG this series ran in September 2012 and included presentations from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), CIPFA and the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

External links

Accounting-for-Business-Rates-Pooling-January-2015

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Accounting-for-Non-Domestic-Rates-Year-2-April-2015

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