Fed up with wondering how much your rates will be this year? We may have found a solution! We came across the Business Link rate estimation service recently and we found it so useful we thought we would share it with you all.

It must be noted that these figures are purely estimations and are not guaranteed to match up with the official rates.

Also the indicator does not calculate any entitlement to relief under the following schemes:

• Charitable or community amateur sports club relief
• Rural rate relief
• Empty/unoccupied relief
• Hardship relief

Start estimating your rates bill now!

Business Rate Relief received an email last week from a Portsmouth City Councillor about the take up of the Relief in the Portsmouth area.

It turns out that the take up in the area was quite low. This prompted the council to start getting in touch with local businesses and making them aware of the scheme. This is a huge step forward. Anything councils do to make small businesses aware of the money they could be claiming back will help them significantly.

It’s not just Portsmouth however. Birmingham and Sutton have also followed suit. Click Here for a Parliament transcript about the Rate Relief Scheme.

More councils should take note of these great examples and help small businesses with their rates.

Lately there has been a number of people emailing us thinking that we give out Rate Relief, unfortunatley this is not the case. We are simply here to provide information to Small Businesses about the relief, we cannot tell you how much relief you are entitled to.

If you want to apply for Business Rate Relief or have a more advanced query then please get in touch with your local council, who’s contact details you can find on the ‘Make a Claim‘ page.

Essex FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) is urging small businesses in Essex, Havering and Redbridge to make sure they claim an estimated £13.7 million owed to them by the Chancellor of the Exchequer

Chairman of the Essex Region of the FSB, Iain Wicks, said: “In the next week or so businesses will start receiving their business rate bills for 2009-2010 and all will see an increase in the amount they are being asked to pay.

“Although the bills are issued by local councils the rate is set by central Government and for small businesses has increased by more than five per cent from 4.50p in the pound to 48.1p in the pound

“It is sad that the Government felt it had to increase business rates during a time of economic difficulty for small businesses especially as it already takes in business rates three times as much as any other European Union countries and much more than in the United States of America.

“Essex FSB is working with all local councils in Essex, Havering and Redbridge as we all agree that during these times of economic difficulty it is important that small businesses get the reliefs they are entitled to as the money they save is spent locally employing and paying staff, providing training and investing for the future of the business

“Here in Essex many councils have successfully increased the number of eligible businesses claiming their Small Business Rate Relief and with 59.7 per cent claiming across the county we are well above the national average claim rate but that still leaves around 10,000 businesses which are eligible for this relief which are not claiming and between them are missing out on up to £13.7 million.

“That money simply gets swallowed up by the Treasury and we believe it would be far better in the bank accounts of Essex small businesses

“Businesses can receive as much as £1,250 back per year simply by completing a single sided A4 form which is available on line – claiming now means no further claims are needed until a new rating valuation list is published so those few minutes completing the application could be worth £2,500 over the next two years!

“We want to see all eligible businesses receiving their relief and are pleased that local councils will step up the campaign to encourage eligible businesses in their area to claim up to half their business rates back!”

More details on the Small Business Rate Relief which can save businesses upon to half their business rates are available from www.businessraterelief.co.uk or on www.fsb.org.uk/essex.

Business Rate Relief has had a facelift!

You may or may not have noticed it but the Business Rate Relief Website has had a slight facelift. There are a few changes around the site but nothing major has changed, we still offer everything we did before hand. We hope you like it!