What are ‘Business Rates’?
This is a question I get asked a lot because it sounds like such a generalised term for any business that people sometimes get the term ‘Business Rates’ confused but it’s actually really simple!
In the world of business and tax – ‘Business Rates’ are quite simply the equivalent of ‘Council Tax’ but for your business property/premises. That’s it! So it’s not a term which means how much someone’s business charges for their rates, it’s actually a tax on ‘non-domestic’ property.
So this works in a very similar way to council tax, you’ll simply receive your business rates bill in February/March and then make payments to your local council throughout the year. Rates are dependant on the area that your business property is situated in and are valued by the ‘Valuation Office Agency’ according to the ‘rateable value’ of your property. So if you’re property is valued at a low amount then your business rates will be low.
How to estimate your business rates
Update, February 2017 – below is the manual method to calculate business rates, however there is a much simpler online method now available as explained on our blog here – https://zlogg.co.uk/how-to-calculate-business-rates/
If you’re looking to work out how much the business rates will be on a business property then here is a simple method in which you can calculate an estimate of your business rates:
- Get a valuation on the business property by visiting here – http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/en/basic/find
- Find the correct ‘multiplier’ for the business property here – http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/static/HelpPages/English/faqs/faq146-what_are_the_current_multipliers.html
- Multiply your property valuation by the multiplier – this figure is the amount you’ll pay for business rates unless you are entitled to any reliefs which will then be deducted from this amount.
To check if you are entitled to any reliefs from business rates then visit here – https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-business-rate-relief
I hope that helps and if you want anymore information just contact me at info@zlogg.co.uk
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