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.