Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House, Abbey Close,
Abingdon, OX14 3JE
Email: comments@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
Telephone: 01235 520202

Vale of White Horse District Council

Rate relief for small businesses

This relief is only available to ratepayers who apply to their Council 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 of less than £2,200.

The rateable value of the property mentioned in (a), or the aggregate rateable value of all properties mentioned in (b), must be under £15,000. 

Ratepayers who satisfy these conditions will have the bill for their single or main property calculated using the lower small business non-domestic rating multiplier rather than the ordinary non-domestic rating multiplier that is used to calculate the liability of other businesses.

In addition, if the single or main property is shown on the rating list with a rateable value of up to £10,000, the ratepayer will receive a percentage reduction in their rates bill for this property of up to a maximum of 50 per cent for a property with a rateable value of not more than £5,000.

If an application for relief is granted, provided the ratepayer's circumstances do not change, the application will not need to be renewed until the next revaluation of non-domestic premises, which happens every five years. Certain changes in circumstances will need to be notified to the Council 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 four weeks of the day after the day the change happened. If this happens, there will be no interruption to the ratepayer's entitlement to the relief. However, failure to notify the authority within this timeframe will mean the ratepayer ceases to be entitled to the relief with effect from the day that the change happened. If they are still eligible, the ratepayer will be entitled to the relief again with effect from the day that they notify the local authority. 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.

Relief is not automatic and can only be granted if the ratepayer makes an application in writing. Applications must be:

• Made on the specified form - which can be downloaded from the right of the page
• Signed by the ratepayer or authorised person – in the case of a company or partnership, this means a director of the company or one of the partners
• Made by no later than the 30 September 2010 to make an application for relief in respect of the financial year 2007/08 onwards, provided the circumstances do not change in the intervening years.

For more details on the eligibility criteria and on how to apply please see the guidance notes and application on the right of the page. Alternatively you can contact the Business Rates Section - see the contact details on the right.