The Government introduced the Small Business Rate Relief Scheme to ease the rate burden on small businesses.
From 1st October 2010, Government introduced, for one year, a more generous level of Small Business Rate Relief.
As a result those ratepayers eligible for relief and whose property has a rateable value below £6,001 will not have to pay any Business Rates from 1st October for a year. If the rateable value is between £6,001 and £12,000, the amount payable will be reduced on a sliding scale. There is no change if the rateable value is over £12,000. Some 3500 businesses in Leicester are affected by the changes.
An announcement that this scheme will be extended to October 2012 was made in the Budget speech on 23rd March 2011, and an information letter from the Government is available to download at the bottom of this page. Leicester City Council has no further information regarding this change currently, but it will not affect your Business rates instalments until October 2011. Please continue to pay your instalments as detailed on your most recent bill.
If you have further enquiries you can contact the Business Rates Section for information / clarification telephone 0116 2527005 or email
business.rates@leicester.gov.uk
Applications
Entitlement is not automatic and an application must be made using our Small Business Rate Relief application form, available at the bottom of this page.
If you apply for relief now and you meet the conditions, we may backdate this to 1st April 2010.
Eligibility Criteria
The relief is available to ratepayers who occupy either:
1. Only one property, or
2. One main property and other additional properties, providing those additional
properties each have a rateable value of less than £2,200 (£2,600 from 1st April 2010). Relief can only be awarded for the main property and the full charge using the higher Non-Domestic Rating Multiplier will apply for the additional properties.
The rateable value of the property mentioned in (1), or the aggregate rateable value of all properties mentioned in (2), must be under £15,000 (£18,000 from 1st April 2010).
The property must be shown in the Rating List on the 1st April of the financial year for which relief is applied, with a rateable value within the thresholds. New properties or any created from a split or a merger after 1st April will not qualify until 1st April of the following year. However, this restriction requiring properties to be in the rating list on the 1st April in order to qualify for relief in that year has been removed from the 1st April 2009.
Relief is calculated on a daily basis and will cease as soon as soon as the criteria are not met.
Small Business Rate Relief is not available to ratepayers who receive mandatory charitable relief.
Future Changes
There is no requirement for eligible small businesses to reapply for the relief annually. It is also not necessary to reapply at the time of any five yearly revaluations of properties (for example, 1st April 2010). To continue to be eligible for the relief businesses must meet the conditions that apply at the time. Certain changes in circumstances will need to be notified to us, these are:
1. If you take up occupation of a property you did not occupy at the time of making your application for relief - notification of this change must be by a fresh application for relief; or
2. If there is an increase in the rateable value of a property occupied by you in an area other than Leicester City Council’s area – notification must be writing.
You must notify us of these changes within four weeks. If this happens, the relief will continue uninterrupted as long as the changes do not otherwise affect your entitlement. Failure to notify us of these changes within this time period will result in the relief being cancelled from the day after the change. The relief, should you still be entitled, will only then be applied from the day we were notified of the change in circumstances.
Relief would end from the date of the change if the change of circumstances were such that you will no longer be eligible for the relief because the criteria are not met.
Level of Relief
Relief can only be awarded for one property and businesses with eligible properties will have their rates calculated using lower Small Business Non-Domestic Multiplier.
In addition, businesses with an eligible property with a Rateable Value of up to £5,000 (£6,000 from 1st April 2010) will receive a 50% reduction in their rates bill. Where the rateable value is above £5,000 but less than £10,000, (above £6,000 but less than £12,000 from 1st April 2010), the amount of relief decreases on a sliding scale of approximately 1% for every £100 (£120 from 1st April 2010) increase in rateable value.
Those businesses with eligible properties with a Rateable Value of £10,000 (and above) but less than £15,000 (£12,000 and above but less than £18,000 from 1st April 2010) will not receive a percentage reduction but their rates bill will be calculated using the Small Business Non-Domestic Multiplier rather than the higher Non-Domestic Rating Multiplier.
To help finance this rate relief scheme a supplement is added to the Small Business Non-Domestic Multiplier and this higher multiplier will apply to those businesses with properties that are not eligible for relief.
Further Information
If you require further information about the Small Business Rate Relief Scheme or need assistance in completing the application form then please email us at: business.rates@leicester.gov.uk or phone us on (0116) 252 7005 or write/visit us at Wellington House, 22-32 Wellington Street, Leicester LE1 6HL.
