Part IVPrecepts and Levies
Precepts
68Precepts to be issued
1
For each chargeable financial year, a precepting authority shall issue a precept or precepts in accordance with this section.
2
A precept must be issued before 11 March in the financial year preceding that for which it is issued, but is not invalid merely because it is issued on or after that date.
3
The precepting authority must secure (so far as practicable) that the total amount yielded by precepts issued by it for a financial year is sufficient to provide for the items mentioned in subsection (4) below, to the extent that they are not to be provided for by other means.
4
The items are—
a
the expenditure the authority estimates it will incur in the year in performing its functions in the year (including an allowance for contingencies),
b
the payments it estimates it will make in the year in defraying outstanding expenditure incurred in any earlier financial year,
c
the expenditure it estimates it will incur and will have to meet in the next financial year before amounts to be yielded in respect of precepts for that year become sufficiently available, and
d
the amount it estimates it will pay in the year into a fund or funds it has established under paragraph 16 of Schedule 13 to the [1972 c. 70.] Local Government Act 1972.
5
In estimating under subsection (4)(a) above a precepting authority which is a county council shall take into account the amount of any levy issued to it for the year but (except as provided by regulations under section 74 below) shall not anticipate a levy not issued.