Attachment of Earnings Orders: Advice for Employers
If you are an employer that has received a Council Tax
attachment of earnings order an explanation on the
following:
More information on attachment of earnings orders is available
in the Attachment of Earnings
handbook 
produced by Her Majesty's Court Service. This guide offers
detailed advice on all types of attachment of earnings order and
explains the priorities between different types of order. If
the answer to any of your questions is not shown on this page you
should consult the handbook. If you can't find an answer to
your query then we may be able to help. You can contact the
Revenues Section by email on 
revenues@bromsgrove.gov.uk or
you can phone the Customer Contact Centre on 
01527
881288.
How is a Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order made?
When a council tax bill is unpaid, we follow a process to allow
us to recover the debt. We can apply to the magistrates court for a
summons to be issued regarding the non payment of council tax. If
we can prove to the magistrates that the council tax bill is
correct and outstanding, the court will issue a liability order. We
can also apply costs to the account to pay the money we have spent
to recover the debt.
Once we have a liability order against an account holder, we
have a number of options which we can use to recover the debt. This
includes applying an attachment of earnings.
If we decide to recover through an attachment of earnings, we
will write to the customers employer with an attachment of earnings
order. We also send a copy of this order to the debtor. The order
is a standard form which sets out the amount of council tax
outstanding and the employers responsibility to comply with this
order.
The employer's duties under a Council Tax Attachment of
Earnings Order
When you receive a Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order
(CTAOE) a
number of duties are placed on you.
If you receive a CTAEO for
someone who is no longer or has never been in your employment then
you must inform the issuing authority within fourteen days in
writing and your responsibility to do anything under the order will
cease.
If the person who is the subject of the order is in your
employment you must make deductions from their earnings.
These deductions should begin as soon as possible after the
receipt of the order. The amount deducted should then be forwarded
to the authority by the 19th day of the month following the month
in which the deduction was made.
You must inform your employee in writing about each deduction
and of either the total deductions made under the order to date or
the outstanding balance to be repaid to the authority. This
information should be provided when the employee is given
their pay statement. If no pay statements are usually given,
you must inform them in writing as soon as possible after making
the deduction. In each case you must include the amount you have
deducted or will deduct towards your administrative costs for
operating the order.
Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Orders: Frequently Asked
Questions
How should payments be made to the council?
Payments under the
CTAOE
can be made
to the council by BACS or by sending a cheque to the Council's
offices. The BACS payment details are shown on the letter
sent to you with the
CTAOE
.
Which ever method you use to make payment you should include
a remittance advice which include the full Council Tax reference
from the letter included with the
CTAOE
.
What about my administration costs?
You may deduct £1 towards your administration costs from
your employee's earnings each time you make a deduction under a
CTAOE
.
How long does the order last?
You must continue to make deductions under the order until you
have deducted the full balance due under the order, we write to you
to tell you to stop making deductions or until the debtor leaves
your employment. If the debtor leaves your employment you
should make a deduction from their final pay and write to us to let
us know they have left your employment.
What happens if I don't comply with the order?
A
CTAOE
is a legal
document and an employer could be liable to a fine if they:
- fail to comply with the order unless they can prove all
reasonable steps were taken to comply
- fail to give all required notifications relating to the
CTAEO
- in giving notification make a statement which they know to be
false in a material particular or recklessly make a statement which
is false in a material particular.
What counts as earnings?
Earnings are defined as sums payable by way of:
- wages or salary (including any fees, bonus, commission,
overtime pay or other emoluments payable in addition to wages or
salary payable under a contract of service)
- statutory sick pay.
- Earnings do not include:
- sums payable by public departments of the Government of
Northern Ireland or of a territory outside the United Kingdom
- pay and allowances of members of the armed forces (other than
that paid by an employer to a person as a special member of a
reserve force)
- benefit or allowances payable under any enactment relating to
social security (this includes statutory maternity pay, statutory
paternity pay and statutory adoption pay)
- tax credits
- allowances payable in respect of disablement or disability;
and
- wages payable to a person as a seaman, other than as a seaman
of a fishing boat
The deductions you make should be taken from net-earnings.
Net-earnings are earnings after the deduction of income tax,
primary Class 1 national insurance contributions, superannuation
contributions and any deduction with a higher priority.
How much should be deducted?
The amount that you should deduct can be calculated by reference
to the tables included with the
CTAOE
. If
you no longer have the tables then they can be downloaded here.
CTAOE
s made between
1 October 1998 and 31 March 2007
CTAOEs made after 1 April
2007
If the payment frequency for your employee is not shown in the
tables then more information on the amount to deduct is included in
the employer's guide
handbook.
