Small business rate relief

How do we work out small business rate relief?

You might be entitled to small business rate relief for your property. This will reduce your business rates bill.

The small business rate multiplier is used to work out all bills for properties with rateable value of:

less than £18,000 (1 April 2012 to 31 March 2017)
less than £51,000 (1 April 2017 onwards)

To qualify for small business rate relief:

the property must be occupied
the property cannot receive another mandatory relief. (For instance as a charity, Community Amateur Sports Club or rural rate relief)

An extra discount is available where the rateable value is less than £15,001 (£12,000 before 1 April 2017).

If you have more than one property, you will still get rate relief on your main property for 12 months.

You can still get small business rate relief on your main property after this if both the following conditions apply:

none of your other properties have a rateable value above £2,899
the total rateable value of all properties is less than £20,000

Summary of small business rate relief available

The following two tables summarise the relief that is available:

Relief available to small businesses from 1 April 2017
Rateable Value	From 1 April 2017
Less than or equal to £12,000	exempt from small business supplement plus 100% relief
Greater than £12,000 and less than £15,001	exempt from small business supplement relief granted on a tapering scale
Greater than or equal to £15,000 and less than £51,000	exempt from small business supplement

Relief available to small businesses 2016/17
Rateable Value	2016/17
Less than or equal to £6,000	exempt from small business supplement plus 100% relief
Greater than £6,000 and less than £12,000	exempt from small business supplement plus more than 1% for every £120 in rateable value
Greater than or equal to £12,000 and less than £18,000	exempt from small business supplement

Apply for small business rate relief

You will need the following information:

the date you want to claim from
details (address and rateable value) of any other properties that you occupy in England. Or clearly state that you only occupy the one property, for which you are applying for relief
state the capacity, in which you are making the application. For example partner, director or trustee

What happens next?

If we need any further information, we will contact you. If you are awarded a relief, we will send you a new bill.

Tell us about any changes to your business

If you take on another premises within or outside of Guildford borough, you need to tell us about the change.

We can then decide whether you still qualify for small business rate relief.

You need to have a MyGuildford account to tell us about the change. If you do not have a MyGuildford account you can set one up.

If you have not yet registered to access your business rates account online, there are more steps. You can then link your online business rates account to your MyGuildford.

To complete this step you will need the following information:

the business rates reference number - found on the latest bill. Do not include the "X" when you enter the reference.
the name of the business
the property postcode

Once you have linked your business rates account, you can go to the 'account summary' screen. You will see a list of 'quick links' on the right-hand side. You need to select the 'upload information or tell us about something else' link.