To claim Small Business Rate Relief your business must first meet some basic requirements. Eligible businesses with rateable values of below £5,000 will get 50% rate relief on their liability. This relief decreases on a sliding scale by 1% for every £100 of rateable value over £5,000, up to £10,000. Your local billing authority will calculate the exact decrease.

The relief is available to ratepayers with either:

• One property, or
• One main property and other additional properties, providing the additional properties do not have individual rateable values of more than £2,200, and the combined rateable value of all the properties is under £15,000 (or £21,500 in Greater London). The threshold for the combined rateable value is dependent on the location of the main property. The main property is the only one that will have the relief applied to it. The additional properties will have either charges calculated using the standard multiplier.

In addition to this relief on liability, eligible businesses with rateable values of between £10,000 and £14,999 (or between £10,000 and £21,499 in London) will have their liability calculated using the small business multiplier.

You must make sure that you apply for the relief no fewer than six months before the end of the financial year to which the relief applies. Your local authority will not remind you to do this.

There are however some exceptions to these rules, these exceptions can be found below.

As of April 1st 2008:
A change to regulations will see Government appling the full business rate to properties that have been empty for three months or more.  Additionally the Government is removing the exemption from industrial and warehouse property so that the full rate will be applied if they have been empty for six months or more. All new properties placed in the Rating List after the 1 April cannot apply for Small Business Rate Relief until the following financial year. This includes properties that are split or merged.

The changes also include completely exempting from rates empty properties owned by charities and community amateur sports clubs.  It also puts in place powers to tackle cases of rate avoidance by owners who deliberately vandalise their property in order to avoid paying rates.

• Non-profit organisations may receive relief at a local authority’s discretion. A property must be used by an overtly philanthropic or charitable organisation. Decisions are made by the local authority. Registered charities automatically receive 80% reduction on the business rates bills and may be entitled to receive further relief.
• Villages with a population below 3,000 can enjoy at least 50% relief on some properties: the general store or post office if it is the only one of its kind and has a rateable value of less than £7,000, a food shop with a rateable value of less than £7,000, the only village pub or petrol station if it has a rateable value of less than £10,500. More relief may be available at the local authority’s discretion.
• If part of your property is not being used and is completely unoccupied for a short time, your local authority might consider giving you relief on your business rates.
• If you are suffering hardship and cannot pay your business rates bill, your local authority may offer you 100% relief - but your case must be an extreme one and your business must be important to the local community.