Accounting for Rates within Cork Corporation between the 1880s and 1950s

This chapter examines how a major urban local authority in Ireland, Cork Corporation, accounted for their primary source of revenue, i.e. various types of rates. Following a review of how the payment of rates evolved in Ireland, and the valuation system underpinning it, the chapter then considers the accounting procedures that operated in Cork Corporation to record this vital source of income. This includes how the Corporation decided upon the various rates payable, how they accounted for monies received and issues surrounding rate collectors’ duties and performance. The chapter also outlines the different forms of accountability that existed to ensure that the rate collection system operated as efficiently as possible. Taken together, this chapter provides an invaluable analysis of how the primary source of income for Cork Corporation at this time (i.e. the various rates that it charged) were accounted for, and managed, during a period of considerable change in the history of Irish local government.