You may qualify for small business rate relief if you:
- occupy 1 non-domestic property in England with a rateable value under £15,000, or
- occupy 1 main property and other properties, providing the additional properties have rateable values of less than £2,900 and the combined rateable value of all the properties is under £20,000.
You can only get relief on 1 property. If you take on another property, and your business no longer meets the qualifying criteria, you will continue to receive relief on the main property for 12 months, even if the combined rateable value is over £20,000.
The amount of relief you get depends on the rateable value of the property:
- properties with a rateable value of £12,000 and under get 100% relief
- properties with a rateable value between £12,000 and £15,000 get tapered relief which reduces from 100% at £12,000 to 0% at £15,000.
You will not qualify for small business rate relief if the property is empty or if your business qualifies for either mandatory charitable relief or mandatory rural rate relief.
Apply for a small business rate relief
Once awarded you do not need to reapply for the relief, however you must tell us straight away if your circumstances change.
Backdating small business rate relief
Under the Statute of Limitation Act 1980, the maximum period that we can backdate small business rate relief is 6 years.