Before we talk about business rate relief, we need to understand what business rates are? These are the taxes paid by properties in England that are in non-domestic or business use. These rates are designed to work similarly to council taxes and the proceeds gathered through them are utilized by the local councils for providing the various local essential services like police, fire, etc.
The government has offered several rate relief schemes for businesses such as Small business rate relief; Empty & partly occupied rate relief; Charity & non-profit making organization relief; and Rural rate relief. You must get expert legal advice to avail huge savings for your business through these schemes.
You may also benefit from knowing about the properties that are granted complete business rate exemption. These include registered places of religious worship; fish farms; agricultural land & buildings; buildings used for welfare or training of disabled people; parks; sewers and sewer accessories; etc. To get a complete list of the exempted property, I would recommend that you get legal advice from a knowledgeable solicitor.
If you are a small business, you can avail rate relief if you occupy only one property and its rateable value is less than £12,000. As per government directives, from Oct 01, 2010 to March 31, 2012, the eligible ratepayers will be receiving rate relief at 100% for properties with rateable value up to £6,000, with a tapering relief 100% to 0% for properties with value up to £12,000 in that period. The businesses having more than one property can avail the relief only if the rateable value of the other properties is less than £2,600 each. In such cases, the small business rate relief will be applied on the main property on the basis of the combined rateable value of all the properties.
So, go on! Take advantage of the rate relief schemes and go claiming!
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