Help with business rates

There are a number of relief schemes available which you may be eligible for - find out more details and apply below.

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Small Business Bonus Scheme

The Scheme provides relief to businesses with properties in Scotland with a rateable value of £18,000 or less.  If the cumulative rateable value of a business’s properties falls between £18,000 and £35,000 the scheme will offer 25% relief to individual property with a rateable value up to £18,000. No relief is available for properties used for payday lending.

The Scheme provides the following relief for rating years 2019/20.

Combined Rateable Value (RV)of all premises in Scotland%
Up to £15,000100
£15,001 to £18,00025
£18,001 to  £35,000 (only on individual properties with RV of £18,000 or less)25

The relief available for 2016/17 and previous Financial Years is as follows:

Combined Rateable Value (RV) of all premises in Scotland

Up to £10,000

100%

10,001 to 12,000

50%

12,001 to 35,000 (only on individual properties with RV of £18,000 or less

25%

For rating year 2013-14 and previous years, the combined rateable value limit was £25,000, but the rates of relief were otherwise as shown above. Relief was also available to payday lenders. You can still apply for this relief – there is no time limit.

What if I own two different businesses are they treated separately?

In situations where a single person owns two entirely separate businesses which operate completely independently out of separate premises each business should be treated as an “individual ratepayer” in its own right and the limits may be applied to each business separately.

The decision on whether or not to treat a business as separate from another is entirely a matter for each local authority to determine.

How do I apply?

Empty Property Relief 

There are significant changes to Empty Property Relief from 1 April 2016.

 The Scheme grants 50% relief to properties which are empty for the first 3 months.  After 3 months a charge of 90% of the normal rate applies.  Empty industrial properties get full exemption for 6 months and thereafter a charge of 90% of the normal rate applies.  Listed buildings and properties with rateable values  of less than £1700 continue to get full exemption for an unlimited period

How do I apply?

Charity and Sports Relief

Registered charities (listed on the register maintained by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator OSCR) and other organisations of social benefit such as Sports, Theatre, Arts Clubs etc. can qualify for both Mandatory and Discretionary relief of up to 100% of rates liability.  Licensed Clubs are usually entitled to a maximum of 75% relief.  Organisations applying for Discretionary relief must have an equal opportunities policy.

How do I apply? 

Fresh Start Relief

With effect from 1 April 2018 Fresh Start relief of 100% is available for all property uses (except payday lending) with rateable values under £65,000 which have been in receipt of empty property relief for 6 months. The maximum period of relief remains at 12 months.

How do I apply?

New Build Relief

Relief is offered for new build properties built from 1 April 2013.  The relief offered is 18 months of up to 100%, which includes the usual 3 month period at 100% offered for all unoccupied property if the following circumstances are all met

  • The property is entered onto the valuation roll between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2018.
  • The property is unoccupied at the time of entry on the valuation roll
  • The new entry is not as a result of a combination or division of existing entry on the valuation roll or due to the refurbishment or change of an existing entry on the valuation roll (including conversion of a domestic property or a property previously exempt from rating)

The relief can be applied for a discontinuous period of up to 18 months, for example if it goes in and out of occupancy. The relief can also be applied at any time from entry on the valuation roll until 31 April 2020, provided it is entered on the valuation roll on or before 31 March 2018.

Relief is awarded under State Aid de minimis.  No other relief can be awarded  if New Build Relief is awarded.

How do I apply?

New and Improved Property Relief

100%  relief is available for new properties until a date 12 months from occupation for such properties added to the valuation roll on or after 1 April 2018. For improved properties, 100%  relief is available on the increase in rateable value resulting from the alterations (ignoring any intermediate reduction in rateable value such as from a partial demolition of the building being expanded).  In both cases relief can only be applied in 2018/19 and 2019/20. An application must be submitted for this relief.

Rural Relief

Properties located within a rural settlement may qualify for rural relief.  The categories eligible for relief are as follows:-

Category Description (RV=Rateable value)Relief Available
Qualifying General Store and Post Offices (sole general store or post office in rural settlement with RV maximum £8,500)100% mandatory relief
Sole General Store or Post Office in settlement with RV £8,500 - £17,00050% discretionary relief
General Store, or Post Office where no more than 2 in settlement with RV up to £8,500100% discretionary relief
Qualifying food store where no more than 2 in settlement with RV up to £8,500100% mandatory relief
Qualifying food store where more than 2 food stores in settlement with  RV up to £8,500100% mandatory relief
Council owned schools, halls and public conveniences in rural settlement with maximum RV £17,000100% discretionary relief
Abattoirs, auction marts, landing pads, airfields, piers and jetties and pharmacies in rural settlement with max RV £8,500100% discretionary relief
Petrol filling stations with RV up to £12,750 and where no other owned in Scotland100% mandatory relief
Petrol filling station with RV up to £8,500, where ratepayer owns another in Scotland  100% discretionary relief

Sole public house/hotel in settlement where ratepayer has no other in Scotland with RV up to £12,750

100% mandatory relief

How do I apply?

 

Renewable Energy Relief

From 1 April 2016 this relief applies only where community organisations are, in return for investment in the project, entitled to payments at a specified level.

Combined rateable value of all business properties in ScotlandPercentage relief (%)
up to £145k100
up to £430k50
between £430k and £860k25
between £860k and £4m10
Greater than £4m2.5
Where these arrangements do not apply then the following reliefs are available from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 for new entries in the Valuation Roll only;
Up to £500K10
Above £500K1.5

How do I apply?

Renewable Energy Hydro Relief

A new relief of 60% is available from 1 April 2018 for entries which are used solely for the generation of renewable heat or power (or both) from water where the rateable value does not exceed £5 million.  The previous new build renewables relief is ended.

Disabled Relief

Relief of rates can be granted in respect of an establishment in which nursing care is available in terms of the Rating (Disabled Persons) Act 1978.  For more information please contact the Non Domestic Rates Team.  

How do I apply?

Transitional Relief

Transitional Relief is available for Restaurants, Cafes, Guest Houses, B & Bs, Hotels, Hostels, Public Houses, Caravan & Camping Sites, Chalets and holiday huts, self-catering units, Timeshares with a Rateable up to £1.5m. Cumulatively this is an increase of maximum 52.7% from the 2016/17 charge.  This relief has to be applied for again this year.  There is now no relief for former full relief properties, split properties and hydropower generation or properties with a rateable value over £1.5m. No backdating of relief to previous financial years is possible.

Day Nursery Relief

With effect from 1 April 2018 100% relief is available for properties wholly or mainly used as day nurseries.  This relief will be applicable until 31 March 2021.

Telecommunications New Fibre Relief

The Non-Domestic Rating (Telecommunications New Fibre Infrastructure) (Scotland) Order 2019 allows for new or separate entries to be made in the Valuation Roll where lands and heritages contain telecommunications new fibre infrastructure which is laid, flown, blown, affixed or attached on or after 1 April 2019. 

100% relief is available for all new broadband fibre entered on the Valuation Roll on or after 1 April 2019 for a ten-year period until 31 March 2029.

Relief will be available from the date of entry on the Valuation Roll.

The exact level of relief awarded will depend on the level of other public sector assistance received by your business (State aid).