Business rates
This money, together with revenue from council tax payers, revenue support grant provided by the Government and certain other sums, is used to pay for the services provided by your local council and other local authorities in your area.
It is important that you tell the Council of changes which may affect your business rates. Please contact us to advise of any changes or for help and information.
The local list
The District Valuer compiles and maintains a Local Non Domestic Rating List. The first list was compiled for 1 April 1990 and is updated every five years with the latest valuation coming into effect from 1 April 2010.
The local list establishes liability to pay the non domestic rates. A hereditament is a unit e.g. factory, shop etc. which has been assessed by the valuation office agency as one entity. A composite hereditament is one that is part domestic and part non domestic.
Individual account enquiries (inc.. new accounts)
How to request information about your individual business rate account.
If you want to request information about your individual business rate account fill in our online form, choosing the relevant categories for whatever you want to request, such as:
- How do I request a statement of account?
- I need a copy bill
- How much do I owe?
General information
2010 Revaluation and Summary Valuations
If you have any queries about the 2010 Rating List or the Summary Valuations, please call the Helpdesk on 0845 602 2010 , where fully trained staff will be standing by to answer all their questions.
Rateable Value
Apart from properties that are exempt from Business Rates, each non-domestic property has a rateable value which is normally set by the valuation officers of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), an Agency of the Inland Revenue. It draws up and maintains a full list of all rateable values, which are available on their website at www.voa.gov.uk. The rateable value of your property is shown on the front of a business rate bill. The rateable value broadly represents the yearly rent the property could have been let for on the open market on a particular date. For the revaluation that came into effect on 1 April 2005, this date was set as 1 April 2003. For the 2010 revaluation, the valuation date was 1 April 2008.
The VOA published the draft 2010 rateable values for non-domestic properties on 30 September online at www.voa.gov.uk/2010. During October 2009, the VOA also sent ratepayers a paper copy of their summary valuation.
If a ratepayer believes the rateable value is excessive they should contact the Valuation Office to discuss the matter. A dedicated helpdesk is in place for all queries relating to valuations for 2010 on 0845 602 2010.
To assist customers to understand the new changes, the Valuation Office Agency has created a microsite with a guide to 2010 business rates valuations 'Join Lisa for a guide to business rates valuations' at www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli
Calculating Business Rates
The Business Rates bill is calculated by multiplying the rateable value of the property by the multiplier or 'poundage' which the Government sets from 1 April each year for the whole of England. The Government normally changes the multiplier every year to move in line with inflation. By law, the multiplier cannot go up by more than the rate of inflation, except in the year of a revaluation when it is set at a level which will keep the total amount raised in rates after the revaluation the same as before, plus inflation for that year.
If a property has a rateable value of £30,000 the basic charge is:
£30,000 x 0.433 = £12,990.00 before any Transitional Relief or Limit on Gains is applied (based on 2011 national multiplier).
Transitional Relief
Property values normally change a good deal between each revaluation. Transitional arrangements help to phase in the effects of these changes by limiting the amount by which a bill may rise following a revaluation.
To help pay for the limits on increases in bills after a revaluation, there also have to be limits on reductions in bills. Under the transition scheme, limits continue to apply to yearly increases and decreases until the full amount is due (rateable value times the multiplier).
The scheme applies only to the bill based on a property at the time of the revaluation. If there are any changes to the property after the revaluation date, transitional arrangements will not normally apply to the part of a bill that applies to any increase in rateable value due to those changes.
Further information about transitional arrangements may be obtained from the Business Rates Section.
Unoccupied properties - Business Rates
The Government has reformed empty property relief in order to provide a strong incentive to bring empty property back into use. This will help to increase the supply of premises to let, and so reduce business rents and improve the competitiveness of the United Kingdom.
It will also bring forward brownfield sites for re-development and so reduce the need for new development on environmentally valuable greenfield land.
The reforms to empty property relief have consequential impacts for the business rate liability of partly occupied properties that have been apportioned (known as a Section 44a agreement). The London Borough of Havering is required by central Government to implement these changes.
So what will this mean for my business rate liability?
As of Tuesday 1 April 2008, most property that has been empty for more than 3 months - or, in the case of industrial property, for more than 6 months - will no longer receive relief from the business rate.
After the initial 3 or 6 month rate-free period expires, empty property will be liable for 100% of the basic occupied business rate, unless it:
Qualifies for the new zero rate provided by the Rating (Empty Properties) Act 2007
From Tuesday 1 April 2008 the business rate liability of empty property that is held by a charity and appears likely to be next used for charitable purposes, or that is held by a community amateur sports club and appears unlikely to be next used for the purposes of the club, will be reduced from 10% of the basic occupied rate to zero.
or
Qualifies for an exemption from business rates under the National Non-Domestic Rate (Unoccupied Property) Regulations
While the current permanent exemption for industrial property will be reduced to 6 months, the Government proposes to preserve the majority of the other existing exemptions unchanged.
However, the Government is consulting on possible reforms to the exemption for empty property that is listed or subject to a building preservation notice; and on the possibility of extending the exemption from business rates for empty property held by companies in liquidation to that held by companies in administration.
or
Qualifies for a De-minimus exemption
From 1 April 2011, the rateable value threshold below which empty properties are exempt is set at £2,600 RV. (The threshold stood at £2,200 prior to 2009 and was temporarily raised in 2009 to £15,000 and again in 2010 to £18,000 but now amended to £2,600 in line with general movement of property values at revaluation).
Payment Deferral
The deferral scheme offered the chance to postpone payment of some of your rates bill for the financial year 2009/10 only.
2009/10 Business Rates Deferral Scheme
If your bill had increased as a result of the end of the previous transitional relief period, you were able to defer 60% of this increase in your bill.
Your 2010-11 annual bill issued in March 2010 will show any deferred payments separately from your new statutory instalments for your 2010-11 charge. If you do not pay your deferred instalments as billed, the arrangement will be cancelled and recovery action taken for the deferred amount which may incur you additional costs.
Other Help
You can find further details of help available to businesses during the recession at the Real Help Now website.