Apply for small business rate relief

Who can get small business rate relief, how much you'll get and how to apply.

Small business rate relief

You can get small business rate relief if:

• you only use one property
• your property's rateable value is less than £15,000

Charities and businesses entitled to Rural Rate Relief cannot receive Small Business Rates Relief. Information about Charitable Relief and Rural Relief can be found on our Reliefs, Discounts and Exemptions page.

What you get

You'll get 100% relief for properties with a rateable value of £12,000 or less. This means you won't pay business rates on properties with a rateable value of £12,000 or less.

As the property value increases from £12,001 to £15,000 the rate relief given will decrease from 100% to 0% on a sliding scale.

If you use more than one property

When you get a second property, you will keep getting any existing relief on your first property for 12 months.

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

• none of your other properties have a rateable value above £2,899
• the total rateable value of all your properties is less than £20,000 (£28,000 in London)

If you don't qualify for relief

If your property has a rateable value below £51,000 you are still considered to be a small business.

Even if you don't qualify for small business rate relief, your business rates will be calculated using the small business multiplier. This is the case even if you have more than one property.

You can see a list of rateable value on the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) website.