All small businesses with a rateable value of below £18,000 a year (or £25,500 in Greater London) can claim up to half of their business rates back. Do you?
This is not an automatic process: currently, you have to claim it back from your local council, although the Government has just pledged to help to make small business rate relief automatic.
For some small companies, business rates are in their top three largest costs, yet in many areas over half of all small businesses fail to claim their relief! Could this be you? Think of the cash flow benefits!
Making a claim is straightforward: simply go to your Council’s website and download the single sheet A4 claim form. It should take no more than ten minutes to complete.
John Walker, National Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses , commented:
‘After rent and wages, rates are the biggest cost to many businesses and steps to help small firms automatically get the relief they are entitled to is welcome news. We have long been calling for small business rate relief to be made automatic and this cash injection will be of great help to many small businesses.’
December 2010