Business rate relief

Non-profit making organisations have no automatic entitlement to rate relief but we may decide to give discretionary relief.

Your organisation must be charitable, religious or concerned with education, social welfare, science, literature or the fine arts, or the property must be used by a non-profit-making organisation wholly or mainly for the purpose of recreation.

Apply for Discretionary Rate Relief

Download, complete and return the Discretionary Relief application form.

You will also need to provide us with a copy of your organisation's:

• Objects and Articles to show what you do
• audited accounts for the last 2 years

This will allow us to confirm what, if any, profits have been made and what happens to them.

Decision

Your application is considered against a set of policy guidelines and criteria, and decisions are made on an individual basis.

You will be notified of all decisions in writing. We can only consider backdating Discretionary Relief to a certain date.

Payment while your application is considered

Please note that you must pay as billed while your application is being considered. If you are unable to pay, please contact us.

If you have received any notices from us regarding non-payment, please contact us immediately so that we can come to some form of payment arrangement.

We have discretion to award rate relief where a business is experiencing hardship. Hardship will only be awarded if it is believed to be in the interest of our taxpayers. We can choose to write off some or all of your debt.

When making this decision, we must consider:

• is your business experiencing hardship
• is it is reasonable to award relief

If you want to apply, you will need to complete a 'Hardship Relief application form'.

Document proof

As you are asking us to write off your rates debt at the expense of other taxpayers, we will ask you to provide a substantial amount of supporting information, proof of:

• wages
• benefits received
• outgoings, for example, copies of your other bills

We may also ask you to provide any additional information that supports your claim. We will write to you and ask you to provide this if we need it.

Please remember to provide as much proof as possible with your application. Your application will only be considered when we receive a fully completed application, and you have provided any proof we ask for.

Please contact us if you want to know more about this relief.

80% Mandatory Rate Relief is available to registered charities or charities exempted from registration as a charity.

Registered Community Amateur Sports Clubs are also entitled if the use of the club is wholly or mainly for charitable purposes.

Apply using the 'Charity Relief application form'.

This applies to village shops and Post Offices, pubs and petrol filling stations. To qualify for relief, your shop must be within a defined settlement in a designated rural area and this settlement must have a population of less than 3,000 people.

For Sheffield, the settlements are currently;

• Bolsterstone
• Bradfield
• Dungworth
• Loxley
• Wharncliffe Side
• Worrall

Plans showing the boundaries of the defined settlements are available for inspection.

Where there is only one village general store, food shop or post office in a defined settlement with a rateable value of up to £8,500 it will be eligible for 100% relief.

Sole village pubs or petrol filling stations with a rateable value of up to £12,500 also qualify for 100% relief.

Any other businesses in the qualifying rural areas, which have a rateable value of up to £16,500 can apply for relief. However, we have the sole discretion whether to award the relief or not.

If you think that you may qualify, please contact us.

Small Business Rate Relief is designed to help small businesses reduce their business rate bill.

Eligible businesses

Eligible businesses with a rateable value of below £12,000 will receive 100% relief commencing on 1st April 2023.

This relief will decrease on a sliding scale of 1% for every £30 of rateable value over £12,000 up to £14,999.

The relief is available to ratepayers occupying:

• one property with a rateable value of less than £15,000
• more than one property where the combined rateable value of all your occupied properties is less than £20,000:
  - relief will be available only on the property with the highest rateable value (your main property)
  - each of the properties you occupy in addition to your main property must have a rateable value of less than £2,900

Reductions on main properties

You may be entitled to a reduction in the business rates bill on your main property if you occupy more than one non-domestic property in England if:

• the total rateable value of your main property plus all the other properties you occupy is less than £20,000 and
• each of your other properties has a Rateable Value (RV) of less than £2,900

In calculating relief, your main property will be classed as the property with the higher RV.

Small Business Rate Relief - extension regulations

Since 1 April 2014, those businesses that have taken on an additional property which would normally have meant the loss of small business rate relief are allowed to keep that relief on the first occupied property for a period of 12 months.

You will still be able to receive the relief on your existing qualifying property even if the total RV of your properties is higher than the £20,000 limit which normally applies.

Change in your circumstances

Small Business Rate Relief will continue until there is a relevant change in your circumstances. Relevant changes are:

• an increase in the rateable value of a property you occupy which is not in our billing area – these changes will have to be notified in writing
• you take up occupation of any property which is not mentioned in your application for relief – these changes will have to be notified through a fresh application

If you believe your business may qualify for relief please complete the 'Small Business Rates Relief application form'.

Improvement Relief supports businesses who have invested in their property.

It provides relief from higher business rates bills, where the increase in your bill was due to making certain improvements to your property.

The relief lasts for 12 months from when the improvement works were completed.

How does Improvement Relief work

To be eligible for Improvement Relief, you must:

• have qualifying improvement works
• meet the occupation condition
• you do not need to apply for Improvement Relief

If you're eligible

You’ll receive a certificate from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) if you have qualifying works.

The VOA will send the same information to the our Business Rates team. They will apply the relief and send you a revised bill if we are satisfied that you meet the occupation requirements. This means that you’ve occupied the property during and after the improvement works.

What it means if you’ve received a certificate from the VOA

If you’ve received a certificate of qualifying works from the VOA, this means that you may be eligible for Improvement Relief.

If you think your certificate for Improvement Relief is wrong, get in touch with the VOA. They value qualifying works and issues certificates to ratepayers.

We have no role in this process. Our role is to apply the relief if you qualify and issue a revised bill showing the relief has been awarded.

There’s no right of appeal against the certified values. However, you should let the VOA know if you think there is something wrong with your certificate.

You can contact the VOA using the email address on your letter.

Further information

For more information on Improvement Relief, you can go to GOV.UK: Improvement relief

For more information on Business Rates Relief, you can go to GOV.UK: Types of business rates relief

If you have any queries relating to your Business Rates bill, please contact Business Rates and not the Valuation Office Agency.

Transitional arrangements soften the impact of revaluation by phasing in the changes to the rates bill over a period of time.

Different transitional arrangements will apply depending on whether your business premises are classed as small or large.

Transition can also affect your bill if you obtain a reduction in your Rateable Value (RV) from a date other than 1 April 2017.

The Valuation Officer may certify that it should have taken effect from the beginning of the Rating List, but that the list cannot be updated due to backdating restrictions.

If your bill receives a Transitional Adjustment, the amount you pay is calculated by increasing the previous year's net rate (that is, the amount you actually paid) by up to the maximum amount permitted by the government for each year.

Level of transitional relief

If a property has a RV of more than £100,000 and is facing an increase in its bill, it is classed as a higher tier loser.

If a property has a RV of between £20,001 and £100,000 and is facing an increase in its bill, it is classed as a middle tier loser.

If a property has a RV of up to £20,000 and is facing an increase in its bill, it is classed as a lower tier loser.

Percentage of the bill that increases or decreases

Once we have found out what level of relief should apply, we then take the annual figure for 2022/23 and increase or decrease it by the appropriate percentage that is determined by the Government.

Apply an inflation adjustment

Once the percentage increase is applied to last years charge, we have to add an adjustment for inflation. This is the level of inflation as at the previous September.

Rateable Value changes

If your RV is changed, we will have to recalculate your entitlement to Transitional Relief. It is quite possible that a reduction in your RV may not result in an immediate reduction in your bill.

Check your relief

If you would like us to check that your calculation is correct, please contact us.

There is no right of appeal against Transitional Relief. It is part of business rates legislation and we have no powers to change or waver it.

If part of your property is empty for a short period, you may apply to have your business rates bill reduced.

Apply

To apply for the reduction, complete the 'Partly Empty Properties Relief application form', and provide a plan of your property, clearly indicating which proportion of your premises is occupied and which is unoccupied.

Once we have received your information, we will visit your premises to inspect them and verify your claim.

Our decision

If we think you should qualify for the relief, we will ask the Valuation Office to issue a certificate to confirm the rateable value of the empty part.

Once we receive this, we will apply the appropriate relief or exemption to the empty part and send you a revised bill.

The period of relief will normally be for a maximum of 3 months, or 6  months in the case of industrial premises.

If you have received any notices from us regarding non-payment, please see payment problems.

Any properties where we have granted the relief will be subject to periodic visits from our property inspector.

If any parts of the area you have previously claimed to be empty are found to be occupied, your relief may be cancelled.