Small Business Rate Relief

pvcprinting · #1 (**permalink**) 06-03-2008, 20:40

Hi Folks...well hope thos of you that are in premises are claiming this....something for nothing

It is well worth registering and claiming it back....better in your paocket than the tax mans

Small Business Rate Relief
This relief came into effect on 1 April 2005.

Eligible businesses with rateable values of below £5,000 will get 50% rate relief on their liability. This relief decreases on a sliding scale by 1% for every £100 of rateable value over £5,000, up to £10,000. Your local billing authority will calculate the exact decrease.

The relief is available to ratepayers with either:

one property, or
one main property and other additional properties, providing the additional properties do not have individual rateable values of more than £2,200, and the combined rateable value of all the properties is under £15,000 (or £21,500 in London). The threshold for the combined rateable value is dependent on the location of the main property. The main property is the only one that will have the relief applied to it. The additional properties will have their charges calculated using the standard multiplier.
In addition to this relief on liability, eligible businesses with rateable values of between £10,000 and £14,999 (or between £10,000 and £21,499 in London) will have their liability calculated using the small business multiplier.

The Small Business Rate Relief scheme is funded by a supplement on the rate bill of those businesses not eligible for the relief. This supplement is built into the standard multiplier.

From 1 April 2007, eligible ratepayers need only apply once during the revaluation period for relief, including those with rateable values between £10,000 and £14,999 (or between £10,000 and £21,499 in London). If your business ceases to be eligible on a day during the financial year, the relief will cease on that day. You must submit your application for the relief to your local authority within six months of the end of the financial year to which it relates - for the 2006/07 financial year, the last date for applications will be 30 September 2007.

Assuming a business meets the eligibility criteria, the relief can only be granted if the property the business occupies is on the rating list from 1 April. The date of occupation of the property is irrelevant, the key date is the effective date given to the property in the rating list. If the property has an effective date after 1 April, then the relief can only be applied for from 1 April of the following year.

Property empty and unused
You pay no business rates for the first three months that a property is empty and, after that, an empty property rate of 50% of the normal bill. But on industrial buildings, listed buildings and small properties with rateable values of less than £2,200, there are no rates to pay even after the first three months. Empty property relief is available to the owner - in this case the owner is the person entitled to possession of the property in question.

As announced in the Budget report of 21 March, the Government is changing the empty property relief from business rates by applying the full business rate to properties that have been empty for three months or more – and removing the exemption from industrial and warehouse property so that the full rate will be applied if they have been empty for six months or more. Subject to the necessary legislation being passed by Parliament, these reforms will take effect from 1 April 2008.

The planned changes include completely exempting from rates empty properties owned by charities and community amateur sports clubs. It also puts in place powers to tackle cases of rate avoidance by owners who deliberately vandalise their property in order to avoid paying rates.

The Government has launched a consultation paper, ‘Modernising Empty Property Relief’ to seek views from stakeholders about aspects of the reforms. The consultation exercise will run until 1 October 2007.

Charities and charity shops
If a property is used wholly or mainly for charitable purposes, or the institution or organisation occupying it is established for charitable purposes only, or is occupied by people administering a trust established for charitable purposes only, you are automatically entitled to an 80% reduction on your bill. You need to apply to your local authority, however, to make sure you receive it. In the case of charity shops, the property must be wholly or mainly used for the sale of goods donated to a charity and the proceeds of sale of the goods must (after deduction of expenses) be applied for the purposes of a charity.

Your local authority may also decide to further reduce the amount you have to pay – or even cancel the bill altogether. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.

Not a charity, but another type of non-profit-making organisation
Although you have no automatic entitlement, local authorities may decide to give you relief or cancel your bill altogether. Your organisation must be non-profit-making and the property it occupies must be used for charitable, philanthropic or religious purposes or concerned with education, social welfare, science, literature or the fine arts. Or the property must be used by a non-profit-making organisation wholly or mainly for the purpose of recreation.

The ODPM issued detailed guidance to local authorities on 'Rate reliefs for charities and other non-profit-making organisations' in December 2002

Rural village of population under 3000
You are entitled to a 50% reduction in the rates bill – or more if your local authority feels you need it – if you are:
– the only village general store or post office, as long as it has a rateable value of less than £7,000
– a food shop with a rateable value of less than £7,000
– the only village pub or the only petrol station (rateable value of less than £10,500).
If you are a business in a qualifying rural village with a rateable value of less than £14,000 your local authority may decide to give you 100% relief if your business is of benefit to the local community. The decision rests with the local authority.

Non-agricultural business on agricultural land or former agricultural buildings - this relief ended on 14 August 2006 and is no longer available

Part of your property is not being used and is completely unoccupied for a short time
Your local authority may consider giving you relief, if it decides you are entitled to it, and reduce your payment on the part of your property that is clearly unoccupied and beyond use for a short period of time. Your local authority can choose to ask the VOA to divide the current rateable value between the parts of the property that are occupied and those which are not occupied. If your application for this rate relief is succesful, you will pay full rates on the occupied part of the property and 50% in respect of the unoccupied part.

You are suffering severe hardship and cannot pay your bill
Your local authority may give you up to 100% relief, on a discretionary basis. It would normally only do this in extreme cases of hardship and for businesses that are particularly important to the local community. It would need to be satisfied that you would suffer hardship if the relief was not granted and takes account of the fact that local council tax payers will be paying part of the cost of the relief.