Small Business Rate Relief
Small Business Rates Relief (SBRR) came into effect from 1st April 2005 and can have a significant impact on non domestic rates charges. The government introduced a rate relief scheme to help the occupiers of small businesses. To qualify for Small Business Rate Relief, each business or individual must apply to their Local Authority.
In England small businesses are generally entitled to small business rate relief if the rateable value of their premises is less than £15,000 (£21,500 in London). Additional properties with rateable values below £2,200 are disregarded when considering applications for small business rate relief. However, the rateable value for such properties are included in determining whether the threshold criterion has been met.
Relief is available to ratepayers who occupy:
a) only one business property in England with a rateable value below £15,000, or
b) one main business property and other additional properties, providing all the additional properties have individual rateable values below £2,200 and the total of the rateable values of all the properties is under £15,000 - relief will apply to the main property only.
There are two elements to the relief - eligible businesses will qualify for relief as follows;
a) the rate bill will be calculated using the small business non-domestic rating multiplier for all eligible properties with a rateable value below £15,000, and
b) businesses with rateable values below £5,000 will get relief of 50% of their liability while this relief will be reduced by 1% for every £100 of rateable value for businesses with rateable values between £5,000 and £9,999.
The proposed small business non-domestic rating multiplier for 2005/06 is 41.5p, while the proposed standard multiplier for 2005/06 is 42.2p.
Where a property is eligible for charitable relief and small business relief, charitable relief only will apply. Where a property is eligible for rural rate relief and small business rate relief, rural rate relief only will apply. Any transitional relief will be applied before any small business rate relief is applied.
If you think you are eligible then make sure you contact your local council by phone or by visiting their website to find out how you can claim your money back.