Small Business Rate Relief

This is a scheme that was introduced by the Government on 1st April 2005.  The Purpose of the scheme is to assist small businesses with their business rates.

This relief is only available to ratepayers who apply to their local authority 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 £2,200.

The rateable value of the property mentioned in (a), or the aggregate rateable value of all properties mentioned in (b) must be under £15,000 outside London or £21,500 within London, including on 1st April each year.

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.

Ratepayers with a rateable value of less than £5,000 will receive 50% relief from their business rates bill.  Ratepayers occupying properties with a rateable value between £5,000 and £9,999 will receive relief on a sliding scale.

If an application for relief is granted, provided the ratepayers’ 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 local authority by the ratepayer (other changes will be picked up by the local authority). The changes that 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 that granted the relief.

Notification of these changes must be given to the local authority within 4 weeks of the day after the day the change happened. If this happens, there will be no interruption to the ratepayers’ entitlement to the relief.

However, failure to notify the authority, within this time frame 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 the relief; notice of an increase in rateable value must be given in writing.

Full details on the eligibility criteria and on how to apply for this relief are available from the Business Rates Section of the Council.