Reliefs and Reductions
You may be able to reduce the amount of Business Rates you pay
by claiming one of the following reliefs described below.
Charity & Discretionary Relief
Charities are entitled to 80% mandatory relief where the
property is occupied by the charity and the property is wholly or
mainly used for charitable purposes.
Charities are entitled to 90% relief where the ratepayer is a
charity and the property is unoccupied but it appears that when
next in use the property will be wholly or mainly used for
charitable purposes.
Harlow Council has discretion to give further relief on the
remaining bill.
Harlow Council also has discretion to give relief on all or part
of any rate bill for property occupied by certain non-profit making
bodies, and can also consider giving rate relief in cases of
hardship or where part of a property is beyond use for a certain
period.
Community Amateur Sports Club Relief
Community Amateur Sports Club Relief is based on the charity
relief details as highlighted above. However, the sports club must
be registered as a Community Amateur Sports Club with the Inland
Revenue.
Small Business Rates Relief
This relief is only available to ratepayers
who apply to their local authority and who occupy either—
(a) one
property, or
(b) one
main property and other additional properties providing those
additional properties each have a rateable value which does not
exceed £2,599.
The rateable value of the property mentioned
in (a), or the aggregate rateable value of all the properties
mentioned in (b), must not exceed £17,999 outside London or £25,499
in London on each day for which relief is being sought. If the
rateable value, or aggregate rateable value, increases above those
levels, relief will cease from the day of the increase.
Ratepayers who satisfy these conditions will
have the bill for their sole or main property calculated using the
lower small business non-domestic rating multiplier rather than the
national non-domestic rating multiplier that is used to calculate
the liability of other businesses.
In addition, if the sole or main property is
shown on the rating list with a rateable value which does not
exceed £12,000, the ratepayer will receive a percentage reduction
in their rates bill for this property of up to a maximum of 50% for
a property with a rateable value of not more than £6,000.
If an application for relief is granted,
provided the ratepayer continues to satisfy the conditions for
relief which apply at the relevant time as regards the property and
the ratepayer, they will not need to re-apply for relief in each
new valuation period.
Certain changes in circumstances will need to
be notified to the local authority by the ratepayer (other changes
will be picked up by the local authority). The changes which must
be notified are—
(a) the ratepayer taking up occupation of a
property they did not occupy at the time of making their
application for relief, and
(b) an increase in the rateable value of a property occupied by
the ratepayer in an area other than the area of the local authority
which granted the relief.
Notification of these changes must be given to
the local authority within 4 weeks of the day after the day on
which the change happened. If this happens, there will be no
interruption to the ratepayer’s entitlement to the relief. A
notification that the ratepayer has taken up occupation of an
additional property must be by way of a fresh application for
relief; notice of an increase in rateable value must be given in
writing.
Full details on the eligibility criteria and
on how to apply for this relief are available from the local
authority.
TEMPORARY CHANGE WEF 1ST OCTOBER 2010 FOR ONE YEAR ONLY:
The Government has introduced a temporary
increase in the level of Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR)
available to eligible businesses.
These changes will come into effect in October
2010.
Eligible ratepayers will pay no rates on
properties with rateable values up to £6,000, with a tapered relief
of between 100% and 0% for properties with rateable values between
£6,001 and £12,000. The new levels of relief will be available for
12 months from 1 October 2010 to 30 September 2011.
Follow this link to
print off an Application for Small Business Rate
Relief .pdf (124kb)
Transitional Relief
Property values normally change a good deal between each
revaluation. Transitional arrangements help to phase in the effects
of these changes by limiting the amount by which a bill may rise
following a revaluation. To help pay for the limits on increases in
bills after a revaluation, there also have to be limits on
reductions in bills. Under the transition scheme, limits continue
to apply to yearly increases and decreases until the full amount if
due (rateable value times the multiplier).
The scheme applies only to the bill based on a property at the
time of revaluation. If there are any changes to the property after
the revaluation date, transitional arrangements will not normally
apply to the part of a bill that applies to any increase in
rateable value due to those changes.
This relief is applied automatically to your account. You do not
need to apply for it.
There are no transitional arrangements for the
year 2009/10.
Rate Relief for New, Non-Agricultural Business on Previously
Agricultural Land or Buildings
Rate relief is available for businesses with rateable value of
up to £6,000, where the business is set up on previously
agricultural land or buildings. Subject to certain conditions, the
business will get a 50% reduction in the rates bill for up to five
years. Local councils have discretion to give further relief on the
remaining bill on such property.
Please note that Harlow is not a designated rural area
and therefore Rural Rate relief is not available.
Schedule of Payments for Certain Backdated Liability
Ratepayers who face certain backdated rates
liability may be able to discharge that liability over up to 8
years by agreement with their billing authority.
This may be possible if the backdated
liability has arisen as a result of an alteration to a ratings list
which:
• means a hereditament is shown on that list
for the first time;
• has effect from a day that is at least 33
months prior to the date the alteration is made;
• is made on or before 31st March 2010;
and
• is not the result of a proposal by an
interested person made under the Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of
Lists and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2005.
To be eligible, ratepayers must have occupied
one or more properties affected by the type of rating list
adjustment above, within the billing authority area, between the
effective date of the list alteration and the date it was actually
made, for 33 months or more. Ratepayers are not eligible if they
were previously liable for rates in respect of a property
“preceding” the new property assessment (i.e. a property that forms
a part of a new merged property or a part of a property that has
been split into two or more new properties).
With the agreement of their billing authority,
eligible ratepayers will be able to discharge any outstanding
liability that accrued between the effective date of the relevant
list alteration and the date the alteration was made over a
period of up to 8 years.
Further details on the criteria and the
process to obtain a schedule of payments are available from your
local authority.
What happens after you claim a relief
If you have been given a relief on your bill the Council will
contact you annually to request a new application or check that
your circumstances remain the same.
If you do not return the form your relief may be
cancelled.