Tuesday, 5th May 2020
As announced by the Government, one of the measures put in place to help businesses during the coronavirus pandemic is the Business Rates Relief.
Following the guidance originally released, the government have recently announced that the discount will be increased to 100% for one year and extended to all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England, including any property used wholly or mainly as a:
- shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues,
- for assembly and leisure; or
- as hotels, guest & boarding premises and self-catering accommodation.
In addition, a further business rates relief has been created for Nursery Businesses, which will operate on the same basis.
As this is a measure for 2020/21 only, the Government is not changing the law relating to business rates reliefs. Instead it will be for individual local authorities to adopt a local scheme and determine in each individual case when to grant relief under their discretionary relief powers.
To help them with this, the Government has provided detailed eligibility criteria.
Key details
- Businesses that received the retail discount in the 2019/20 tax year will be rebilled by their local authority as soon as possible.
- Some local authorities will apply the discount automatically to all eligible businesses, others may require businesses to apply to receive the discount.
Further guidance for Local Authorities on the Application of the Expanded Retail Scheme
Your local authority should be able to help with any questions on eligibility, however if you are unsure then give us a call and we can review the criteria for you to check your eligibility.
How can Onyx help?
Unsure if you qualify? We can review your rates bill and can advise on whether your local authority should have made contact with you.
If you would like us involved, then we will support you during phone calls and meetings and can advise on budgets and forecasts once you know your eligibility of the relief.
Are your accounts and management information up to date? If not then we can help to bring your accounting affairs up to date.
We can prepare cashflows to show how the extra savings resulting from the rates relief would be better utilised to help sustain your business throughout this time.
Visit our previous articles to access other funding options.
GET IN TOUCH WITH ONYX
If you have any queries, or want to discuss further, please give us a call us or e-mail us at enquiries@onyxaccountants.co.uk for a FREE no obligation consultation.
Got any questions or queries? Our friendly team are happy to help. Just drop us a line! Call us on 0121 753 5522 or 01902 759 800.
