Business rates are charged on most non-domestic properties, like:

• – Shops
• – Offices
• – Pubs
• – Warehouses
• – Factories
• – Holiday rental homes or guest houses

You’ll probably have to pay business rates if you use a building or part of a building for non-domestic purposes.

What to pay and when?

Your local council will send you a business rates bill in February or March each year. This is for the following tax year. 

How your rates are calculated

Business rates are based on your property’s ‘rateable value’.

This is an estimate by the Valuation Office Agency of how much it would cost to rent a property for a year on 21 April 2021.

Revaluation

At revaluation, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) updates the rateable value of business properties to reflect changes in the property market.

The most recent revaluation came into effect in England and Wales on 1 April 2023, based on rateable values from 1 April 2021.

Get business rates relief

Some businesses in England are eligible for a reduction in their business rates bill. This is called ‘business rates relief’.

You may be able to get a discount from your local council if you’re eligible for business rates relief.

When can you get business rates relief?

You may be eligible for business rates relief if your business is:

• – a small business
• – a retail, hospitality and leisure property – for example, a shop, restaurant, entertainment venue or hotel
• – the only business in a rural area
• – a charity or a community amateur sports club
• – a local newspaper

You may also be eligible for business rates relief if:

• – you own a property and it’s empty, partly empty or being refurbished
• – your rates change by more than a certain amount at revaluation
• – you’ll get less small business or rural rate relief after 1 April 2023
• – you are in financial difficulty
• – your property is in an ‘enterprise zone’
• – your property is in a ‘freeport’
• – your property is a heat network

Exempt from business rates

You may not have to pay business rates on:

• – agricultural land and buildings, including fish farms
• – buildings used for the training or welfare of disabled people
• – buildings registered for public religious worship or church halls.

Small business rate relief

You can get small business rate relief if:

• – your property’s rateable value is less than £15,000.
• – your business only uses one property – you may still be able to get relief if you use more.

What you’ll get

How much small business rate relief you get depends on your property’s rateable value.

You will not pay business rates on a property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less, if that’s the only property your business uses.

For properties with a rateable value of £12,001 to £15,000, the rate of relief will go down gradually from 100% to 0%.

Example:

If your rateable value is £13,500, you’ll get 50% off your bill. If your rateable value is £14,000, you’ll get 33% off.

If you use more than one property

When you get a second property, you’ll keep getting any existing relief on your main property for 12 months.

You can still get small business rate relief on your main property after this if both the following apply:

• – None of your other properties have a rateable value above £2,899.
• – The total rateable value of all your properties is less than £20,000 (£28,000 in London)

If your circumstances change

Report changes to make sure you’re paying the right amount and do not get a backdated increase in your bill or overpay.

Contact your local council if:

• – Your property becomes empty.
• – You get another property.
• – You make any changes to your property that would increase its value – for example, extending or renovating it.
• – The nature of your business changes or it moves to different premises.
• – The amount of small business rate relief you’re eligible for may change. For example, it may decrease if the rateable value of your property has increased.

You’ll usually need to pay your new rate starting from the day your circumstances changed.

If you’re a small business but do not qualify for small business rate relief.

Your business rates bill is calculated using a ‘multiplier’ – your rateable value is multiplied by this number to get your final bill.

If your property has a rateable value below £51,000, your bill will be calculated using the small business multiplier, which is lower than the standard one. This is the case even if you do not get small business rate relief.

The small business multiplier is 49.9p and the standard multiplier is 51.2p from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.