Perth and Kinross council has been accused of throwing away a staggering £4 million amid some of the most drastic cuts to services in recent memory.
The money has been written off by the local authority after it was unable to recoup the cash from council tax payers and businesses.
That decision has been defended by the council, which said it had been done for “accounting purposes” and that there remained the possibility of recouping some of the money.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance, however, slammed the write-off and said too little had been done to trace unpaid council tax.
It said the decision was particularly difficult to swallow at a time when local authorities across the country are facing funding shortfalls and being forced to reduce services.
It called on Scottish councils to make greater efforts to differentiate between “those who can’t pay” and “those who won’t pay” and take tougher action against the latter.
Figures obtained by The Courier reveal more than £2.4m of unpaid council tax has been written off over the past three financial years and a further £1.6m in non-domestic rates over the same period.
Various reasons were given for the write-offs including “no trace”, “sequestration” and “deceased with no estate”.
Council tax officers make attempts to trace people who have not paid the tax and have moved property but they effectively write off their debt if they can’t locate them after a certain period.
The council can resume pursuit of the debtors if new information comes to light such as it becoming clear that they left the council area but have since moved back.
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, criticised the ‘write off’ amounts and stressed that more should be done to trace unpaid council tax.
“Local authorities can’t afford to leave millions of pounds in tax uncollected, particularly when budgets are so tight,” he said.
The figures for Perth and Kinross reveal a total of £743,746.15 of council tax debt was written off for the 2012-13 financial year, £984,572.35 for 2011-12 and £713,622.40 for 2010-11.
The council also wrote off £740,890 of non-domestic rates in 2012-13, £460,740 in 2011-12 and £441,880 in 2010-11.
Perth and Kinross Council, however, said it stood by the decision to write off the council tax debts.
A spokesperson said: “Writing this debt off is purely for accounting purposes. The files on all these cases will remain open and every effort will be made to collect the outstanding debt wherever legally possible. The amount of money written off should also be considered within the context of the amount of council tax which is billed each year.”