A
Guide To Your Rates Bill
The first page of your rates bill will show the details
of the rates year to which the bill applies, the property that the
bill relates to, information about that property including its
rateable value and description, the multipliers in use for the rate
year and a summary of your rates charge.
The second page of your bill gives detailed information on how
your rates have been calculated, your current payment method, the
instalments to be paid and the due dates for the instalments.
A brief explanation of the different aspects of the rates
bill is shown below.
The rateable
value
The
multipliers
How the
rates are calculated
Transitional arrangements
The Rateable Value
All non-domestic properties have a rateable value.
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA), an agency of the Inland
Revenue is responsible for setting the rateable value. The figure
is based on a professional assessment of the annual rent of a
property if it was available to let on the open market at a fixed
valuation date.
The rating list that will come into effect on 1 April
2010 is based on a valuation date of 1 April 2008 - all
properties are valued from the same date to ensure that they are
assessed on a level basis. The
VOA
gathers as much evidence as
possible about actual rents paid for properties in order to
determine appropriate rental values.
The rateable value of your property is not the amount you pay in
business rates, but it is the basis for the calculation of your
business rates bill.
Information on what to do if you think your rateable value is
wrong is shown on the appeals and advice page in the How To Reduce Your
Rates Bill section. Alternatively you can access the
VOA website 
for more information about your rateable value.
The Multipliers
The multiplier is a key factor in the calculation of
your rates bill. It is set annually by central government and
determines the percentage (expressed as pence in the pound) of the
rateable value of your property that you will pay in business
rates.
Since 1 April 2005, two multipliers have been in effect, these
are known as the standard multiplier and the small business
multiplier.
The small business multiplier is applicable to those businesses
eligible for small business rate relief. For 2010/11 this has
been set at 40.7p.
The standard multiplier, which includes a supplement to pay for
Small Business Rate Relief, is set, for 2010/11, at 41.4p.
The multipliers usually change each year in line with
inflation.
More information about Small Business Rate Relief can be found
on the How To Reduce Your Rate Bill page.
How the rates are calculated
In the simplest cases the rates liability is calculated by
multiplying the rateable value by the standard multiplier.
If your property had a rateable value of £17,000 your rates
would be calculated as 17,000 * 0.414 = £7,038, however this amount
would then be subject to transitional arrangements.
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 the increases in bills after
revaluation, there also have to be limits on reductions 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).
Transitional arrangements only apply to the bill based on a
property at the time of 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.
