Business rates are a tax on non-domestic/business use properties in England and Wales.  These taxes work in a similar way to that of council tax, in that the proceeds of business rates are used by local councils to provide a range of local services such as the police and fire and rescue.

A number of rate relief schemes are available to businesses which can yield huge savings:

• Small business rate relief
• Charitable and non-profit making organisation relief
• Empty and partly occupied rate relief
• Rural rate relief

A number of specific types of property are also entirely exempt from business rates:

• Agricultural land and buildings
• Fish farms
• Places of public religious worship
• Lighthouses, buoys and beacons occupied by or belonging to Trinity House
• Sewers and accessories belonging to a sewer
• Certain property of drainage authorities
• Parks
• Property used for the disabled
• Air raid protection works, provided the hereditament is not used or occupied for any other purpose
• Swinging moorings
• Roads crossing over or under watercourses
• Hereditaments in Enterprise Zones
• Visiting forces premises