Assessment of property values is performed by the Assessor appointed by each local authority; in some cases there is a valuation joint board that covers multiple council areas.
Each local authority sets a tax rate expressed as the annual levy on a Band D property inhabited by two liable adults.
Each collecting authority then adds together the Band D amounts for their area (or subdivisions of their area in the case, for example, of civil parish council precepts) to reach a total Band D council tax bill.
John Wilson MSP presented an Enforcement of Local Tax Arrears (Scotland) Bill on 19 March 2010 in order to try to reduce this collection time from 20 to 5 years.
Although Wilson's bill has not made any progress (as of October 2016[update]), the Scottish parliament has passed the Community Charge Debt (Scotland) Bill to stop Councils pursuing debts from the older Community Charge, though there are some scrutiny stages to go through before it can become law.