The council tax and NDR income included in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement is the council's share of accrued income for the year. However, regulations determine the amount of council tax and NDR that must be included in the council's General Fund. Therefore, the difference between the income included in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement and the amount required by regulation to be credited to the General Fund is taken to the Collection Fund Adjustment Account and included as a reconciling item in the Movement in Reserves Statement.
The Balance Sheet includes the council's share of the end of year balances in respect of council tax and NDR relating to arrears, expected credit losses, overpayments and prepayments and appeals.
Where debtor balances for the above are identified as impaired because of a likelihood arising from an assessment of local and national and service factors over the proceeding 12 months or lifetime basis under the statutory arrangements will not be made the asset is written down and a charge made to the taxation and non-specific grant income and expenditure line in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement. The expected credit loss is measured as the difference between the carrying amount and the revised future cash flows.
Short-term employee benefits are those due to be settled within 12 months of the year-end. They include such benefits as wages and salaries, paid annual leave and paid sick leave, bonuses and non-monetary benefits for current employees and are recognised as an expense for services in the year in which employees render service to the council. An accrual is made for the cost of holiday entitlements earned by employees but not taken before the year-end which employees can carry forward into the next financial year. The accrual is made at the wage and salary rates applicable in the following accounting year, being the period in which the employee takes the benefit. The accrual is charged to Surplus or Deficit on the Provision of Services, then reversed out through the Movement in Reserves Statement to the accumulated absences account so that holiday benefits are charged to revenue in the financial year in which the holiday absence occurs.
Termination benefits are amounts payable as a result of a decision by the council to terminate an officer's employment before the normal retirement date or an officer's decision to accept voluntary redundancy and are charged on an accruals basis to the relevant service in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement when the council is demonstrably committed to the termination of the employment of an officer or group of officers or making an offer to encourage voluntary redundancy.
Where termination benefits involve the enhancement of pensions, statutory provisions require the General Fund or Housing Revenue Account balance to be charged with the amount payable by the council to the pension fund or pensioner in the year, not the amount calculated according to the relevant accounting standards. In the Movement in Reserves Statement, appropriations are required to and from the Pensions Reserve to remove the notional debits and credits for pension