Business Rates Explained
Introduction
Rateable Value
Apart from properties that are exempt from Business Rates, each non-domestic property has a rateable value, which is normally set by the valuation officers of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), an Agency of the Inland Revenue.
It draws up and maintains a full list of all rateable values, which are available on their website at the Valuation Office Agency website If you want to search for the rateable value of a particular commercial property in Pendle, you can do so using the Valuation Office search facility. The rateable value of your property will be shown on the front of your bill.
The rateable value broadly represents the yearly rent the property could have been let for on the open market on a particular date. For the revaluation that came into effect on 1st April 2010, this date was set as 1st April 2005.
The valuation officer has to maintain the list and may alter the value if he or she believes that the circumstances of the property have changed.
The ratepayer (and certain others who have an interest in the property) can also appeal against the value shown in the list if they believe it is wrong. Further information on the grounds for making an appeal, and on how to make one, can be found on the VOA website (see the link above) or from your local valuation office:
The District Valuation Office
Red Rose House
104 Lancaster Road
PRESTON
Lancashire
PR1 1LX
Telephone: 03000 504900
The effect of successful appeals against values shown in the rating list that came into force on 1st April 2000 will normally be backdated to the beginning of the financial year in which they are made, although there are exceptions to this.
National Non-Domestic Rating Multiplier
The local council works out the Business Rates bill by multiplying the rateable value of the property by the multiplier or 'poundage' which the Government sets from 1st April each year for the whole of England. The Government normally changes the multiplier every year to move in line with inflation.
By law, the multiplier cannot go up by more than the rate of inflation, except in the year of a revaluation when it is set at a level which will keep the total amount raised in rates after the revaluation the same as before, plus inflation for that year. The current multiplier will be shown on the front of your bill.
Transitional Arrangements
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 reduction in bills. Under the transition scheme, limits continue to apply to yearly increases and decreases until the full amount is due (rateable value times the multiplier).
The scheme applies only to the bill based on a property at the time of the 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. Further information about transitional arrangements may be obtained from Pendle Borough Council:
Treasury Services,
Borough of Pendle,
Number One Market Street,
Nelson,
Lancashire
BB9 7LJ
Telephone: (01282) 661818
