Non-domestic rates

Business rates is the commonly used name in England of non-domestic rates, a tax on the occupation of non-domestic property (National Non-Domestic Rates – NNDR). Rates are a property tax with ancient roots that was formerly used to fund local services that was formalised with the Poor Law 1572 and superseded by the Poor Law of 1601. The Local Government Finance Act 1988 introduced business rates in England and Wales from 1990, repealing its immediate predecessor, the General Rate Act 1967. The act also introduced business rates in Scotland, but as an amendment to the existing system which had evolved separately to that in the rest of Great Britain. Since the establishment, in 1997, of a Welsh Assembly Government able to pass secondary legislation, the English and Welsh systems have been able to diverge. In 2015 business rates for Wales were devolved.

The Local Government Finance Act 1988, with follow-up legislation, provided a fresh administrative framework for assessing and billing, but did not redefine the legal unit of property, the hereditament, that had been developed through rating case law. Properties are assessed in a rating list with a rateable value, a valuation of their annual rental value on a fixed valuation date using assumptions fixed by statute. Rating lists are created and maintained by the Valuation Office Agency, a UK Government Executive Agency. Rating lists can be altered either to reflect changes in properties, or as valuations are appealed against. New rating lists are normally created every five years, however, the 2015 revaluation has been postponed until 2017.

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