Rates – A Hot Potato?

Bucking the trend of several decades of being below the radar, business rates has emerged as a political football in recent years with some particularly vociferous lobby groups taking the opportunity to bounce it further and further up the political agenda, and justifiably so. With a marginal tax rate approaching 50%, business rates in the […]

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Chancellor offers lifeline to ratepayers

Chancellor Phillip Hammond has delivered his first Spring Statement, and befitting the recent thaw in the icy weather conditions, he has, as did his predecessor Nigel Lawson in 1991, predicted the first green shoots of recovery in the public finances, with the deficit now essentially all but eliminated. Hammond also announced that the Rates Revaluation, […]

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REVALUATION AND OVERHAUL OF BUSINESS RATES SYSTEM

The biggest change in the Business Rates System since 1990 is about to take place. With effect from 1 April 2017 every non-domestic property in Northamptonshire will receive a new Rateable Value on which Business Rates will be assessed for the following 5 years. There are some notable increases in Rateable Value. For example the […]

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Business Rates – The Hard Sell

I took a call from a client today who says that as he was being infested with swarms of flies he thought it must be time to take some advice on his Business Rates. The swarms of flies referred to are the endless hard sell phone calls coming through from so called rating consultants. My […]

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Rates Revaluation – The Clock is ticking

Business Rates demands issued this month will the last which show the current Rateable Values (RV’s) of non-domestic properties. The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) are working on a new Rating List which will come into force on 1st April 2017 to show new RV’s Values that will determine the amount of rates payable for the […]

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Rates Relief on Obsolete Building

It has taken two appeals and 5 years of negotiations by Underwoods. Eventually the Valuation Office Agency conceded that a disused flour mill in Peterborough was obsolete and the Rateable Value has been reduced to zero with effect from June 2010 yielding a rates refund in excess of £150,000. Rating Law dictates that buildings are […]

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