Reducing your rates

Empty property

Reduced rates are payable on unfurnished empty properties:

• For the first three months that a property is empty no rates are payable.
• Thereafter rates are payable at 50% however some properties such as factories and listed buildings are exempt from even these.
• Properties with a rateable value less than £2,200 pay no rates when empty.
• Where part of a property is empty for a short period of time (less than a year) relief may be available on the empty portion - at the Council's discretion.

Mandatory relief for charities

A mandatory reduction of 80% of the Rates Bill can be granted to:

• Registered Charities
• Charities Exempted from Registration
• Where the property is used for charitable purposes.

Charitable Relief application form (224 KB)

Discretionary relief for charities and not for profit organisations

A reduction of up to 100% of the Rates Bill can be granted, at the discretion of the Council, to:

• Charities
• Organisations not established or conducted for profit where the main objectives are: charitable, or philanthropic, or religious, or concerned
• Clubs, societies, or other organisations not established or conducted for profit, which occupy premises used wholly or mainly for the purposes of recreation.

Hardship relief

A reduction of up to 100% of the Rates Bill can be granted, at the discretion of the Council, to:

• A Business facing hardship which is considered to be of importance to the community and where it is in the interests of Council Tax payers for relief to be granted.

Mandatory rural rate relief

for sole village stores, Post Offices, public house, petrol filling stations, and all village food shops

A reduction of 50% of the Rates Bill can be granted to rural businesses which meet the following criteria:

• The business must be in a designated rural settlement.
• Post Offices and General Stores can claim Mandatory Relief if their rateable value is less than £7,000, and they are the sole supplier in the settlement.
• Food Shops can claim Mandatory Relief if their rateable value is less than £7,000.
• Public Houses and Petrol Filling Stations can claim Mandatory Relief if their rateable value is less than £10,500 and they are the sole supplier in the settlement.

Discretionary relief for businesses in a rural settlement

• A reduction of up to 100% of the Rates Bill can be granted, at the discretion of the Council to businesses in a designated rural settlement with a rateable value of less than £14,000.

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.  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 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 . 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.

Small Business Rates Relief application form (235 KB)

If you think that your business may qualify for one of the above reliefs and you want to know more, please contact our business rate team:

Tel: 01823 356324
Fax: 01823 356585.
Email: revenues@tauntondeane.gov.uk

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