The Council Tax Precept

The precept is the parish council’s share of the council tax. The precept demand goes to the billing authority, The Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, which collects the tax for the Parish Council. The ‘Precept’ is converted into an amount per Council Tax Band that is added onto the Council Tax bill. Income and expenditure for the next financial year are calculated in the form of estimates.

Parish and town councils can apply for other funding such as grant and funding awards, but they do not receive funds direct from central government as principal authorities do.

​Internal Audit

An Internal Auditor is appointed each year to review the accounts and all aspects of internal control. The internal auditor is an independent and competent person appointed by the Council and cannot be involved in any business with the council or a serving member of the council. The internal auditor must report to the Council and sign a report on the Annual Return to confirm that the councils system of control is in place and operating.

​External Audit

The Parish Council must approve the accounts and Annual Return on or before the 30th June, so that these are received by the External Auditor by the first week in July.

The annual return presents for electors and local taxpayer’s the councils accounting statements and governance arrangements in the year and the external auditors opinion on them.

The external audit is the process by which an auditor, reviews the councils annual return and other documents as required and reports to the council and electors. The law requires the external audit to be carried out to ensure that the risks to public money have been managed. The Audit Commission appoints auditors for all parishes in a county (known as external auditors) to review the councils annual return.