30 Jan Small Business Rates Relief

One of the biggest costs a business can pay without realising revolve around Business Rates, but what some businesses don’t know or realise is you may not have to pay them!

I learned this when I started our family run embroidery business back in 2009. We were so excited about launching the business that we didn’t think or consider about business rates and when we received a telephone call from the local authority asking us whether we had registered for small business rates.

At first, my heart sank as I knew this would be an additional cost until we learned about Small Business Rates Relief.

If you aren’t aware of Small Business Rates Relief (SBRR), here are some very important facts that you should know.

Your business will qualify for small business rates relief if your property is occupied and it’s rateable value is less that £15,000.

Your business only uses one property in England although you may still be able to receive relief if you use more than one property.

This basically means that you don’t have to pay business rates on a property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less. For properties who have a rateable value of £12,001 to £15,000, the rate of relief will decrease gradually from 100% to 0%. For example, a business renting a retail outlet with a rateable value of £13,500 will receive a 50% discount off the rates bill. If the rateable value is £14,000, then you will receive a 33% discount.

If your property in England has a rateable value below £51,000, your bill will be calculated using the small business multiplier, which is lower than the standard one. This is the case even if you do not get small business rate relief.

The small business multiplier is 49.1p and the standard multiplier is 50.4p from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.

Additional information:

You could check the Government Website for the latest information by clicking here or you could check your business rates valuation by clicking here.

Alternatively, we recommend checking the latest information on the North Northants Council website by clicking here