Rate Relief For Small Businesses
This relief is only available to ratepayers who apply to their
Council and who occupy either
a) one property, or
b) one main property and other additional properties providing
those additional properties each have a rateable value of less than
£2,600.
The rateable value of the property mentioned in (a), or the
aggregate rateable value of all properties mentioned in (b), must
be under £18,000.
Ratepayers who satisfy these conditions will have the bill for
their single or main property calculated using the lower small
business non-domestic rating multiplier rather than the ordinary
non-domestic rating multiplier that is used to calculate the
liability of other businesses.
In addition, if the single or main property is shown on the
rating list with a rateable value of up to £12,000, the ratepayer
will receive a percentage reduction in their rates bill for this
property of up to a maximum of 50 per cent for a property with a
rateable value of not more than £6,000.
If an application for relief is granted, provided the
ratepayer's circumstances do not change, the application will not
need to be renewed until the next revaluation of non-domestic
premises, which happens every five years. Certain changes in
circumstances will need to be notified to the Council by the
ratepayer (other changes will be picked up by the local authority).
The changes which must be notified are:
a) the ratepayer taking up occupation of a property they did not
occupy at the time of making their application for relief; and
b) an increase in the rateable value of a property occupied by
the ratepayer in an area other than the area of the local authority
which granted the relief.
Notification of these changes must be given to the local
authority within four weeks of the day after the day the change
happened. If this happens, there will be no interruption to the
ratepayer's entitlement to the relief. However, failure to notify
the authority within this timeframe will mean the ratepayer ceases
to be entitled to the relief with effect from the day that the
change happened. If they are still eligible, the ratepayer will be
entitled to the relief again with effect from the day that they
notify the local authority. A notification that the ratepayer has
taken up occupation of an additional property must be by way of a
fresh application for relief; notice of an increase in rateable
value must be given in writing.
To apply for this reduction please download the
following PDF file (184kb) Small Business Relief
>>
For more details on the eligibility criteria and on how to apply
please contact the business rates section on 0845 070 2081. A copy
of the small business rate relief application form can be printed
and returned to the address shown. Alternatively further
information concerning business rates can be viewed at: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/
Budget Announcement – a further one-year increase of
Small Business Rate Relief
On the 23 March 2011 the Chancellor of the
Exchequer announced that the current temporary increase in Small
Business Rate Relief, which started on 1 October 2010 and was due
to end on 30 September 2011, will continue for a further year (1
April 2012 to 31 March 2013). The measure doubles the usual rate of
relief so that ratepayers with rateable values below £6,000 pay no
rates at all for the period, while ratepayers with rateable values
between £6,000 and £12,000 receive tapered relief from 100% to
0%.
The Government is aiming to make the necessary
changes to secondary legislation by the summer. Once the
legislation is in force adjusted bills will be sent to eligible
ratepayers.
The current scheme came into effect in October
2010 when the Government introduced a temporary increase in the
level of Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) available to eligible
businesses.
What are the levels of relief given to qualifying businesses
under the Small Business Rate Relief Scheme?
From 1 October 2010 to 30 September 2011 (now
extended to March 2013)
Rateable values between £1 –
£5,999
Business rates will be calculated using the reduced non domestic
multiplier and receive 100% relief on the amount payable
Rateable values between £6,000 –
11,999
Business rates will be calculated using the
reduced multiplier and relief will decrease on a sliding scale of
approximately 1 per cent for every £240
Rateable value between £12,000 –
17,999
Business rates will be calculated using the
reduced non domestic multiplier
The small business rate multiplier for 2012-13
is 45.0p