Advisors might like to note that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has recently issued confirmation that the draft, business rateable values for 2017-18 are now available to view on the www.gov.uk website. The url to check changes is https://www.gov.uk/correct-your-business-rates.
The facility was uploaded 30 September 2016, and anyone in England and Wales who pays business rates, can go online to check their new draft rateable value. From this they can get an estimate of what their business rates will be from April 2017.
Apparently, it only takes a couple of minutes to click, find and review a rateable value. If a ratepayer thinks the information held about their property is incorrect, they can ask the VOA to update their records.
In total, all 1.96 million non-domestic properties in England and Wales have been revalued. These new rateable values are based on the rental value of properties on 1 April 2015, and will be used to calculate business rate bills from 1 April 2017.
Business ratepayers should note that they may be able to apply for a temporary reduction in their business rates if premises are affected by severe local disruption (for example, flooding, building or road works).
In England, it is also possible to claim small business rate relief if:
- your business only uses one property
- your property’s rateable value is less than £12,000
Local councils deal with applications for small business rate relief. Other regions of the UK have similar reliefs.
Business owners won’t pay business rates on properties with a rateable value of £6,000 or less until 31 March 2017. This is double the usual rate of 50%.
The rate of relief goes down gradually from 100% to 0% for properties with a rateable value between £6,001 and £12,000.
Comments are closed.