How business rates are calculated.
Premises that are subject to business rates are given a rateable value by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). Local authorities use the VOA's assessment of a property's rateable value to calculate business rates bills. The rateable value is based on the likely annual open market rent for the premises at a particular date.
Rateable values are reviewed every five years - this is called a revaluation. They were last updated in Great Britain on 1 April 2005, based on market rents at 1 April 2003. Properties that have been changed since the last revaluation (eg extended) can be reassessed.
The VOA is currently working on the new rateable values which will become effective in Great Britain on 1 April 2010, based on market rents at 1 April 2008.
To assess the rateable value, factors such as the size of the premises and how they are used are taken into account. Different parts of the premises may be valued at different levels. For example, the front part of a shop, nearest the entrance, is more valuable than space further back or storage space in the basement.
Details of the rateable value, and how it has been calculated, are shown on a summary valuation for the property.
The business rates you are charged are calculated using the rateable value and the multiplier set by the government. To calculate business rates, the rateable value is factored with the multiplier , eg if the multiplier is 46.2 pence, then for every pound of rateable value, 46.2 pence is liable in business rates. Note that the rateable value is given in pounds while the multiplier is given in pence.
In Northern Ireland, Land and Property Services (Rating Service) works out your rates by multiplying the rateable value by the Regional Rate + District Council Rate (the poundage).
In England , the standard multiplier for 2008/09 is 46.2 . For example, a property with a rateable value of £10,000 is normally charged £ 4,620 , excluding any discounts or reductions that may be applicable.
How your property is valued for business rates.
The VOA gives all business and non-domestic property in England and Wales a rateable value. Rateable value is a professional assessment of the annual rental value of a property on a specific date.
The VOA uses a wide range of property information and rental evidence, and studies the rental market in depth to ensure that valuations are accurate and consistent, reflecting the individual characteristics of each property.
For most properties, such as shops, offices, warehouses and other industrial property, evidence of actual rents being paid for similar properties in the area is used to assess rateable values.
For other types of property, such as pubs and other licensed premises, reference is often made to the business receipts being achieved to gauge the level of ‘fair maintainable trade’ that might be expected, using this as the basis for the assessment of rateable value.
For specialist property like courts, neither of these methods is appropriate, so building and land costs form the basis for the assessment of rateable value.
Below are some of the common issues that can affect rateable values.
Internal factors
The zones used are not fair - my shop is an unusual shape
There is more in the valuation than actually exists
My property is in a poor state of repair
This property is now more than one property
The property is now derelict
The property is now vacant
Part of the property is now exempt from rating
The property is now used for domestic purposes
There is major refurbishment work going on
We only occupy part of what we are being charged for
The property has been changed - it is now occupied differently
There is a different occupier in the property
The measurements of my property are wrong
External factors
The economic downturn (credit crunch) has caused a reduction in my trade
The area has deteriorated over time
There is a new development in the area
Others
There's a restriction in my lease so the property can only be used for a specific trade
The property is different to the description used
The effective date of the rateable value is wrong
The address that is being used is wrong
Yahoo! News: Technology News
1 - Obama administration seeks online privacy rules
(AP)
2 - Calif. pledges better mobile privacy disclosures
(AP)
3 - HP CEO pleads patience as earnings fall 44 pct
(AP)
4 - Just Show Me: How to turn off in-app purchases on your iPhone
(Yahoo! News)
5 - Apply to be a NASA space food tester
(Yahoo! News)
6 - NASA Wants You ... to Eat Space Food in Hawaii [VIDEO]
(Mashable)
7 - White House unveils plan to protect online privacy
(Reuters)
8 - KT reviewing network fees on Youtube, Internet TVs
(Reuters)
9 - Verizon customers experience another 4G LTE outage
(Digital Trends)
10 - Receive pop-up alerts with the Powow: Text Messaging Android app
(Appolicious)
11 - Three reasons why ID theft increased in 2011 and how you can protect yourself
(Digital Trends)
12 - Amazon pulls 5,000 titles from Kindle store in dispute with distributor
(Digital Trends)
13 - These comedy apps will put a smile on your face
(Appolicious)
14 - Everything Everywhere sees LTE rollout this year
(Reuters)
15 - 'Ubuntu' to Turn Android Phones into Home PCs, Media Centers
(ContributorNetwork)
16 - Apple store to open in London's Harrods store mid-March, same day as iPad 3 launch?
(Digital Trends)
17 - Synopsys 1st-quarter results beat estimates
(Reuters)
18 - IBM eyes cybersecurity market with new platform
(Reuters)
AP - The Obama administration is calling for stronger privacy protections for consumers as mobile gadgets, Internet services and other tools are able to do a better job of tracking what you do and where you go.
AP - California is clamping down on nosy mobile applications, telling them they must give people advance warning if they want to keep pulling sensitive information from smartphones and computer tablets.
AP - Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Meg Whitman pleaded for patience Thursday as she described operational challenges and other internal problems that contributed to a decline in earnings at one of the world's largest technology companies.
Yahoo! News - Welcome to Just Show Me on Tecca TV, where we show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll show you how to turn off in-app purchases on your iPhone. Some apps let …
Yahoo! News - Was your favorite part about a visit to the Air and Space Museum the little packets of space ice cream they sell at the gift shop? If so, you'll be glad to know that scientists are preparing to create a new generation …
Mashable - Calling all supertaster space nerds: NASA wants your help to improve the bland food astronauts would have to eat while on a mission to Mars.
Reuters - The White House on Thursday proposed a "bill of rights" that would give consumers greater online privacy protection and could eventually give the government greater powers to police Internet firms such as Google Inc and Facebook.
Reuters - South Korea's top Internet provider, KT Corp plans to charge data-heavy content providers such as Google's Youtube and Internet-enabled TV service operators to subsidize costly network upgrades, a KT executive said on Thursday.
Digital Trends - As confirmed on the official Verizon Twitter account this morning, the cellular service provider noted a problem with the 4G LTE network. However, the spokesperson noted that the â3G data, voice and text services are operating reliably.â Unhappy customers in Detroit, Phoenix, Arizona, Columbus, Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Philadelphia posted complaints on the Verizon discussion forums throughout the morning. Some of the customers also stated that 3G service was unavailable at the same time. According to Verizon Wireless spokesman Tom Pica, Verizon Wireless started receiving customers calls about the outages around 6:30 A.M. Eastern time.Â
Appolicious - Are you sick of the way your Android phone organizes your text messages? The innovative and free Powow: Text Messaging app for Android is a fabulous new way to organize your text messages just by downloading this modern and fun text app.
Digital Trends - Last year saw an increase in identity theft incidents when compared to 2010. According to a fraud report from Javelin Strategy & Research, there has been an increase of 13 percent in ID Theft for 2011, and some of the blame can be pinned on the rise of social media and smartphone use.
Digital Trends - Amazon has removed 5,000 e-book titles from its Kindle store after it failed to reach an agreement with distributor Independent Publishers Group (IPG) over the terms of a new contract. IPG was founded in Chicago 41 years ago and entered the e-book business in 2001. Itâs the second largest independent book distributor in the US.
Appolicious - Today’s most innovative comedians are not necessarily telling jokes in front of a live audience, on TV, or in the movies. A new golden age of comedy is playing out online and via mobile applications for smartphones and tablet computers. There are apps that showcase the funniest satirists on Twitter, broadcast interviews with newcomers and comedy legends, and make classic publications like The Onion and Cracked come alive.
Reuters - Everything Everywhere, Britain's biggest mobile carrier, expects to start building a next-generation LTE network by the end of the year, catching up with the United States and parts of Scandinavia and Asia that already have more advanced networks.
ContributorNetwork - Ubuntu is an African word that roughly translates to "humanity to others." It's also "the third most popular desktop operating system in the world," behind Windows and OS X, according to its developer outreach page. And it might be coming to an Android smartphone near you, turning it into a home desktop PC as well as a media center.
Digital Trends - Last month we learned that Apple was planning to open a store inside one of the worldâs most famous department, Harrods in London.
Reuters - Chip-design software maker Synopsys Inc posted a quarterly profit that beat analysts' estimates, helped by strong demand for its new products, and raised its full-year outlook.
Reuters - International Business Machines is gearing up to take a chunk of the growing Internet security market by applying its data analytics to help companies and organizations fight cyberattacks.
