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Business rates - annual notification

The National Non-Domestic Rates, or Business Rates, are collected by local authorities from those who occupy non-domestic properties. The rates are pooled by central government and redistributed to local authorities according to the number of people living in the area.

The money together with revenue from council tax payers, revenue support grant provided by the Government and certain other sums is used to pay for services provided by your local authority and other local authorities in your area.

Rateable Value

Each non-domestic property has a rateable value which is set by the Valuation Office Agency. It is responsible for maintaining a full list of all rateable values, available on their website at www.voa.gov.uk Opens in a new window. From the 01 April 2010, the rateable value represents the annual open market rental values as at 01 April 2008. Revaluations are carried out by the Valuation Office Agency every 5 years.

The rateable value may be altered by the Valuation Office if the circumstances of the property have been changed. The ratepayer (and certain others who have an interest in the property) can appeal against the value shown in the list if they believe it is wrong. Further information can be obtained from the Valuation Office website.

National Non-Domestic Rating Multiplier

The business rates bill is worked out by multiplying the rateable value of the property by the appropriate multiplier. From 1st April 2005 there are two multipliers; the standard non-domestic rating multiplier and the small business non-domestic rating multiplier. The former is higher to pay for small business rate relief. The multipliers are set each year by the Government and cannot (except in a revaluation year) go up by more than the rate of inflation.

Transitional arrangements

Property values normally change a good deal between each revaluation. Transitional arrangements help to phase in the effects of these changes by limiting increases to bills. To help pay for the limits on increases in bills,there also have to be limits on reductions in bills. Under the transition scheme, limits continue to apply to tearly increases and decreases until the full amount is due (rateable value x multiplier).

The scheme applies only to the bill based on a property at the time of revaluation. If there are any changes to the property after 1st April 2010, transitional arrangements will not normally apply to the part of the bill that relates to any increase in rateable value due to those changes.

 

Small Business Rate Reliefs.For more details please view our Small Business Rate relief page.

Unoccupied property rating and exemptions from rates. For more details please view our exemptions page.