Retailers urged to review their business rates bill

Commercial property owners and tenants have been urged to review their business rates bills, which are starting to arrive, indicating what would be their liability from 1 April.

RVA Surveyors, an independent business rates reduction specialist based in Manchester, noted that the tax authorities are often working on outdated information, which may not have even been correct at the time, making it imperative that businesses review their rates bills.

“We have found that 50 per cent of the clients that engage, could achieve a reduction,” Anthony Hughes of RVA Surveyors, explained. “Unfortunately, it is all too common that businesses are left unaware that they could achieve significant reduction in their liability for both historic, and future bills.”

With overhead costs continually on the rise, Hughes noted that it is all the more important for businesses to understand their rates bills, one of the top four costs for any businesses.

How to review your business rates?

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is responsible for setting the Rateable Value (RV) of properties and determining multipliers, while local authorities are responsible for the collection of business rates liability and applying reliefs to qualifying properties.

Perhaps the first step is to check that the rates bill you received is for the correct property. Mistakes do happen however, and it is best to make sure that you are not unknowingly paying for a property, or part of a property, that is not yours.

This is easily checked. On every rates bill there is a property reference number. This number can then be inputted into the VOA’s website, where it will pull up all the relevant information for that property. You can then compare this to your bill.

The RV of a property will also be clearly visible on the rates bill – though each local authority does present it differently. The RV is the basis for which the VOA rates your property; you can then multiple it by the correct multiplier which will give you the rates payable.

Your business rates account could have some credit that can either be claimed and returned to you, or used to offset future liability. Unfortunately, not all local authorities publish whether you have credit, or the amount, on your account.

“We strongly recommend that people get in contact with their local authority to check,” Hughes said. “On our last review, we found that there were circa £300 million of unclaimed credits. Credit on a business rates account could mean the different between staying open and insolvency for many businesses.”

Business rates list closes soon

The 2017 rating list ends on 31 March. The next revaluation will come into effect on 1 April, based on rateable values from 1 April 2021. You can find your business rates valuation online.

Businesses can contact the VOA before 31 March to make sure that the information they hold about your property on the 2017 non domestic rating list is correct, and to let them know if it isn’t.

In England, this is known as making a Check case, and in Wales, as making a proposal. Since making a Check case involves setting up an account on the Government Gateway and claiming your property, which can take some time, the VOA has advised doing this as soon as possible if you want to make a Check case.