According to the Daily Telegraph on 9th April 2013, the amount paid in Business Rates on empty properties exceeded £1.1 billion last year and new research has found that Local Authorities collected 19% more tax than in 2011 / 2012 than they did just two year’s earlier, according to data from The Taxpayers Alliance. This figure comes just a week after Business Rates for 2013 / 2014 rose by 2.6%. The Telegraph notes that this means that the tax is now equal to almost half the annual rent of a property in most cases, as the Rate in the Pound is 47.0 pence and with the majority of rents having fallen since they were last assessed in April 2008 – the antecedent date for the 2010 Valuation List - which is now likely to remain in force until 2017 due to the Government proposals to defer the new Valuation List from 2015, as scheduled, to 2017.
We can either mitigate fully or at least partially your liability for empty rates and, indeed, have a successful track record in reducing assessments on a permanent basis and recently achieved a 24% reduction in rates on a retail unit in Leeds which of course is backdated to 2010, producing considerable savings for the client.