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What is Business rate?

Business rate, otherwise known as National Non-Domestic rate (NNDR) is a tax on properties that are not used for domestic purposes such as shops, factories and offices.

Person holding briefcaseIf your property is used for both domestic and non-domestic purposes part of it will be assessed for business rates and the other part for Council Tax, for example a public house.

Non-domestic rate or business rate is the way the users of non-domestic properties contribute towards the cost of providing services such as roads, the Police and the Fire Brigade.

The income from the non-domestic rate is paid into a national pool and redistributed between authorities in proportion to their adult population. Business rate, together with Council Tax, helps us to pay for your services.

The borough now has two business improvement districts,  Hainault Business Park and Ilford Town Centre.

Who pays business rates?

The organisation or person using the property pays the business rate. If you are the owner of an empty property you may have to pay business rate. All non-domestic properties have a 2010 rateable value unless they are specifically exempt. This is assessed by the Valuation Office Agency 

When is a property revalued?

The last revaluation of all non-domestic properties was in 2010 using 2008 rents. Revaluations of properties are conducted every 5 years to keep rateable values up to date and to ensure that each ratepayer’s bill is fair in relation to all others. You can appeal against your rateable value if you think it is wrong.

How to find out what your rateable value is?

The rateable value of your property is assessed by the Valuation Office Agency who is part of H M Revenues & Customs. The current rateable (2010 list) value broadly represents the annual rent the property could have been let for in 2008, a copy of which may be inspected at Valuation Office Agency's website or at our offices.

The Valuation Office
10th floor
Crown House
Linton Road
Barking
Essex
IG11 8HJ

Tel No. 03000 501 501

Rating multiplier

The national non-domestic rating multiplier is the rate in the pound fixed each year by the Government. (The rateable value of a property is multiplied by the rate in the pound to produce the gross annual rate bill for a property). After each revaluation, the poundage is adjusted so that the total burden on ratepayers remains broadly the same.

Between revaluations the rate in the pound cannot increase by more each financial year than the annual rate of inflation in the previous September.  The rating multiplier for 2012/13 is 0.458, and for 2011/12 was 0.433
More information can be found in the Business Rates Explanatory Notes 2012/13(pdf 850kb)

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