Small Business Rate Relief
For an application form, please see the right hand downloads menu.
How Does It Work?
The scheme operates as follows:
From April 1 2010, two non-domestic rate multipliers are set by central government – the normal multiplier and a lower, small-business multiplier. The amount of relief granted will be dependent on the rateable value of the eligible property that you occupy and will be calculated as follows:
If you occupy an eligible property with a rateable value of £6000 or less, your non-domestic rate will be calculated using the lower small-business multiplier. In addition, you will qualify for a further 50% reduction on your bill. This 50% reduction was temporarily increased to 100% reduction from 1 October 2010 to 30 September 2012.
If you occupy an eligible property with a rateable value of more than £6000 and not more than £12,000, your bill will also be calculated using the lower small-business multiplier. In addition, you will qualify for further relief depending on the actual rateable value of your property. You will receive a 50% reduction, less approximately 1% for every £120 that the rateable value exceeds £6000 on a sliding scale up to £12,000. This reduction was increased to 100% less approximately 2% for every £120 that your rateable value exceeds £6000 for the period 1 October 2010 to 30 September 2012.
If you occupy an eligible property with a rateable value of more than £12,000 and less than £18,000 your bill will be calculated using the lower small-business multiplier only. You will not receive any further relief.
Which Properties Are Eligible?
An eligible property is a property where you are in occupation of:
- A Property with a Rateable Value less than £18,000
- Only one non-domestic property in England or, one main non-domestic property and other additional non-domestic properties in England, providing that the additional properties have individual rateable values of less than £2,600 and the combined rateable values of all the properties is less than £18,000.
In the second case the relief will be applied to the main property only, and the charge on the additional properties will be based on the higher rating multiplier.
- If a ratepayer occupies a property after 1st April, but that property was in the local list on 1st April, relief can be awarded from the date of occupation.
- An application form must be completed and returned to the billing authority.
- The application must be by 30th September in the financial year following the valuation period you are applying for, or 6 months after the rating authority is notified of the alteration to the list (whichever is latest).
Where the ratepayer is an individual, the application must be signed by the ratepayer. In any other case it must be signed by an authorised person. An authorised person means a partner in a partnership, a trustee of a trust, a director of a corporate body, e.g. a company, and in any other case, a person duly authorised.
Your rateable value can be found on your business rate bill, or on the Valuation Office website:
www.voa.gov.uk
Recent Changes / Re-applying for SBRR
In the interests of maximising take-up of the relief by eligible small businesses, and of reducing bureaucracy and costs for both small businesses and local authorities, the Government has decided to remove the requirement to reapply for SBRR. This means that businesses which continue to be eligible for SBRR at the time of revaluation 2010, and meet the conditions which apply at that time, will continue to receive SBRR automatically. The requirement for businesses to notify their billing authorities if they are no longer eligible for the relief will continue to apply.
Backdating of SBRR
New applications can be backdated to 1st April 2010
Interaction With Other Reliefs
If you are entitled to 80% mandatory relief as a charitable body and small-business rate relief, you will receive 80% mandatory relief only.
If you are entitled to 50% mandatory rural relief and small-business rate relief, you will receive 50% mandatory rural relief only.
If you are in receipt of Discretionary Rate Relief you may still qualify.
Changes In Circumstances
From 1st October 2006 ratepayers are obliged to notify the Council awarding small business rate relief of the following:
- Increases in the rateable value of a property occupied by the ratepayer that is not in the area of the billing authority granting small business rate relief. This must be notified in writing within 4 weeks of the increase.
- Occupation of a property not mentioned on the original application for relief. A new application must be made within 4 weeks of occupying the property.
If a ratepayer does not notify the billing authority of the above within the 4 week period, they will lose relief from the date of the change / occupation until the date they do notify the authority.
The cost of this relief is paid for by other ratepayers and it is a criminal offence for a ratepayer to provide false information when making an application for small business rate relief.
Increase in Level of Small Business Rate Relief
On 24 March 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Government will temporarily increase the level of SBRR so that eligible ratepayers will pay no rates on properties with rateable values up to £6,000, with a tapered relief between 100% and 0% for properties with rateable values between £6,001 and £12,000. Originally this was available for 12 months from 1 October 2010 to 30 September 2011. However, this more generous level of relief has now been extended for a further year, until 30 September 2012.
There are no other adjustments to the scheme. For example, the eligibility criteria remain the same. The Government has confirmed that it will meet the costs of the increased levels of relief. There will be no changes to the multiplier so those businesses that do not fall within the eligibility criteria of the scheme will see no change in their bills.
The Government is making this change to the SBRR scheme to provide help with the fixed costs of starting and running a small business as the economy starts growing again.
What do you need to do?
Until you are told otherwise by your billing authority, you must continue to keep paying your current business rates bill. Current collection and enforcement procedures will continue to apply to ratepayers who miss a scheduled instalment.
For those already claiming small business rate relief, there is no need for you to do anything else at this stage. A revised business rate bill will be sent to you later this year if you are affected by the changes.
If you think that you meet the criteria, but have not submitted a claim for small business rate relief, you should contact your local authority to see if you are entitled to support.
Further information about Small Business Rate Relief may be obtained from the Business Link website.