Rates Payable

[Maddog]

Hi

This is my first post and I am slightly lacking knowledge so please bear with me.

I have a question regarding the area of business rates.

I am in negociation, via an estate agent, with a shop space in London (in the borough of Hounslow). The Rateable Value of the premises is £25,000. It is a new business and I would like to know the approximate annual business rate bill.

Do I calculate this based on the Small Business multiplier?

Am I eligible to apply for any additional small business rate relief, if so what level of relief will I get?

Is there any relief for a new business?

Am not expecting an exact final bill figure as I am sure it is not that simple, but an approximation would be just fantastic.

Hoping someone out there can help.

Thank you

 

[NickGrogan]

Hi

The Rateable Value of the premises is £25,000. It is a new business and I would like to know the approximate annual business rate bill.

Do I calculate this based on the Small Business multiplier?

Yes, just multiply the RV by the Multiplier and this should be your annual bill.

Am I eligible to apply for any additional small business rate relief, if so what level of relief will I get?

I doubt it, but worth calling the council on Monday. There are normally surprisingly helpful.

Is there any relief for a new business?

Not that I'm aware of.

 

[Billmccallum]

rateable value £25,000 x .45p = £11,250 p.a.

see http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/index/business/business_rates.htm

 

[Maddog]

Thank you guys for your help.

Also on the Hounslow website, it says the following:

Small business rate relief

Eligible businesses with rateable values of below £6,000 will get 50% rate relief on their liability. This relief will decrease on a sliding scale of 1% for every £100 of rateable value over £6,000, up to £12,000. 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 £2,600, and the combined rateable value of all the properties is under £17,999 (or £25,499 in London). The threshold for the combined rateable value is dependent on the location of the main property.
In addition to this relief on liability, eligible businesses with rateable values of between £12,000 and £17,999 (or between £17,999 and £25,499 in London) will have their liability calculated using the small business multiplier.

I will have one property with a rateable value under £25,499, so does this mean I get some relief. It's probably me but it's not wrded is a very clear manner, hence the confusion.

Thank you again.

 

[chalkie99]

That 50% rate has been increased to 100% throughout England (and Wales, though Wales makes it's own arrangements) for the last two/two and a half years via special help for small business announced by the Chancellor in the Budget and extended in subsequent budgets until the end of March 2013.

Now, the thing to watch out for is the next Budget statement which although termed the "Autumn" statement is actually being announced in early December. There is every chance that this relief will again be extended as I cannot think the government would dare to end it in the current economic situation and, who knows, maybe it will be extended to larger rateable values given the amount of press about empty high streets.

Might be worth hanging fire for another couple of weeks.

 

[Esk247]

That 50% rate has been increased to 100% throughout England (and Wales, though Wales makes it's own arrangements) for the last two/two and a half years via special help for small business announced by the Chancellor in the Budget and extended in subsequent budgets until the end of March 2013.

Our has only ever been as high as 50% although i don't know many who get this rate relief unless they rent a very small retail unit (one room off the high street)

http://www.scarborough.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=9058

This reduction is available at 50% for ratepayers occupying single properties with a rateable value up to £6,000, with relief reducing in percentage terms on a sliding scale until it is 0% at a rateable value of £12,000.

The relief is only available to ratepayers with either:

(a) one property, or
(b) one main property and other additional properties, providing those additional properties have rateable values up to £2,599.

The rateable value of the property mentioned in (a), or the aggregate rateable value of all properties mentioned in (b), must be under £18,000.

The scheme is funded through a supplement on the Business Rate bills of those businesses occupying properties with a Rateable Value of £18,000 or more. The supplement is built into the standard non-domestic rating multiplier. All businesses occupying properties with rateable values below £18,000 do not have to contribute towards the relief and will have their bills calculated using the lower small business non-domestic rating multiplier with effect from 1 April 2012.

 

[chalkie99]

I'm surprised because, as I understand it, rates are calculated on a multiplier of the rateable value, as stated earlier in the thread and then small business rates relief applies to properties with a rateable value of less than £12,000 where you have only one property.

The relief then applies differently according to the country you are in - Scotland gets the best discounts of up to 100%, England 50% and Wales 25%.

Since October 2010 and, currently, up until March 31 2013 there is 100% relief in England and Wales for RVs under £6,000 and a reducing sliding scale up to £12,000.

Confirmation and more info at https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-business-rate-relief/small-business-rate-relief

 

[Maddog]

I'm very confused. The information on the gov.uk link seems to indicate that I wouldn't qualify for additional relief, whereas if I'm reading it correctly, the hounslow website suggests that I do.

I guess I will call the council on Monday for clarification.

 

[kelvin1950]

I guess I will call the council on Monday for clarification.

That really is the only way to do it IMO. I couldn't make any sense of that when I was trying to work out if we qualified. At best I thought we might get a little, at worst I thought we might get nothing. As it turned out, I rang the council and they did a calculation while I was on the phone and the final figure was very acceptable! So much so that I didn't like to ask how the hell they'd arrived at it!

 

[Nord20]

It always annoyed me that "small business" seems to be determined by the size of the premises, nothing to do with the size of the business.

So one guy in small office trading billions on the stock market gets a huge rates relief, whereas a reasonable sized shop, which may turn over much much less, gets nothing off their bill.