Non-domestic (business) rates relief

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Non-domestic (business) rates relief

Find out how we can help you pay your non-domestic (business) rates bill.

Small Business Bonus Scheme

Provides relief to businesses with properties in Scotland with a combined rateable value of £35,000 or less, or if you only have one property, a rateable value of less than £20,000. This includes both occupied and unoccupied properties.

From 1 April 2023 the Small Business Bonus Scheme Relief is changing. The qualifying criteria is as follows:

Amount of relief available (single property)
Ratepayer with a single property in Scotland with a Rateable Value (RV)	Amount of relief
Up to £12,000	100% (ie no rates payable)
£12,001 to £15,000	% = 100 - (75 x(1 - (15000 - RV) / 3000))
£15,001 to £19,999	% = 25 x ((20000 - RV) / 5000)

Amount of relief available (multiple properties)

Ratepayer with multiple properties with a combined rateable value (RV) In Scotland)

Amount of relief

Up to £12,000

100% (ie no rates payable)

£12,001 to £35,000

25% on each individual property with a rateable value of £15,000 or less

For individual properties with rateable value

£15,001 to £20,000

% = 25 x ((20000 - RV) / 5000)

*This will allow a business with 2 or more properties with a cumulative rateable value up to £35,000 to qualify for relief of 25% on individual properties with a RV up to £20,000.

A Small Business Bonus Scheme Relief calculator (Excel, 14kb) is available to check the relief you are eligible for; this will calculate for single properties. Please contact the Business Rates team if you require any information regarding the calculation for multiple properties.

Please note – Small Business Bonus Scheme Relief cannot be awarded to Payday lenders or unoccupied properties.

With effect from 1 April 2023 Small Business Bonus Scheme Relief cannot be awarded to Advertisements, Car Parking Spaces or betting Shops.

Apply for Small Business Bonus Scheme

Complete and return a Small Business Bonus Application Form (Word, 23kb).

Empty Property Relief

From 1 April 2023 Empty Property Relief is no longer a mandatory relief and local authorities are required to set their own policies for offering discretionary relief to empty properties within their respective boundaries.

North Ayrshire Council have agreed to retain reductions at the same level as the statutory provisions that were in place up to 31 March 2023.

The reductions available for empty premises will continue as follows:

Industrial properties

100% Empty Property Relief

For a maximum of 6 months from the date when the property became vacant.

90% Empty Property Rate

After 6 months, charged as a percentage of the rate that would apply if the premises were occupied.

All other properties

50% Empty Property Relief

For a maximum of 3 months from the date when the property became vacant.

90% Empty Property Rate

After 3 months, charged as a percentage of the rate that would apply if the premises were occupied.

Please note: 100% relief applies to the following type of properties:

rateable value less than £1,700
listed building, ancient monument or property with a preservation order
prohibited by Law from occupation (e.g. a Building Warrant has been issued)
under compulsory purchase order
unoccupied due to death or insolvency
properties not comprising one or more buildings or part of a building

Apply for Empty Property Relief

Complete and return an Empty Property Relief Form (Word, 46kb).

Fresh Start Relief

If you occupy a property which has been awarded Empty Property Relief, for at least 6 months prior to your becoming liable for non-domestic rates and occupying the property, you can claim a 100% discount for a period of 12 months from the date of occupation.

To qualify for this relief the Rateable Value of your property must be £100,000 or less.

Please contact us to see if your property qualifies.

Part Occupied Property Relief

If you have a property which is only partly occupied for a short period of time then you can apply for part-occupied property relief.

If your property is an industrial property, the unoccupied area of the property must be unoccupied for 1 to 6 months for you to be eligible.

For any other property, the unoccupied area of the property must be unoccupied for 1 to 3 months for you to be eligible.

The maximum period of relief which can be awarded is 12 months in total for the same ratepayer. This 12 month period may consist of several separate claims over different financial years.

Apply for Part Occupied Property Relief

Complete and return a Part-occupied Property Relief Form (Word, 43kb). Include a plan of the property showing the unoccupied area.

Charity Relief

Registered charities (or trustees for a charity) that use its business premises wholly or mainly for charity purposes may be eligible for both mandatory and discretionary non-domestic rates relief of up to 100% (80% mandatory and 20% discretionary relief).

Non-registered charities and other organisations and clubs may be eligible to receive between 20% and 100% discretionary non-domestic rates relief if they:

are established not for profit
have an equal opportunities policy in place
are run for social benefit

Apply for Mandatory/Discretionary Rate Relief

An application form will be available here in the near future. In the meantime, please contact the Business Rates team.

Sports Club Relief

For any sports club in North Ayrshire to be considered for rate relief it must:

have an equal opportunities policy in place
be registered with the controlling body for clubs of that type
be a sport recognised by the Scottish Sports Council

Unlicensed clubs that meet the required criteria will receive 100% discretionary relief.

Licensed clubs that meet these criteria are entitled to receive 50% discretionary non-domestic rate relief. If turnover is less than £30,000 per year an additional 10% relief is awarded.

Sports clubs registered with HMRC as Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC) are entitled to receive 80% Mandatory non-domestic rate relief. If unlicensed, this will be increased to 100% relief. If licensed and turnover is less than £30,000 per year an additional 10% relief is awarded.

For information about registering as a CASC, conditions of this scheme and the benefits available, visit the Scottish Government website.

Apply for Sports Club Relief

An application form will be available here in the near future. In the meantime, please contact the Business Rates team.

Rural Relief

50% mandatory relief can be awarded to Post Offices, general stores, petrol stations, small hotels and public houses in a rural community of less than 3,000 people.

To qualify as a Post Office:

rateable value must be £8,500 or less
the property must be used wholly or partly as a Post Office
the Post Office must be the only one in the designated rural community

To qualify as a general store:

rateable value must be £8,500 or less
the ratepayer must be involved wholly or mainly in the retail sale of food and general household goods
the general store must be the only one in the designated rural community

To qualify as a petrol filling station, small hotel or public house:

rateable value must be £12,750 or less

We have discretionary powers to top up this relief to 100% for these businesses, schools, village halls, car parks, public conveniences and other subjects which:

provide a service that benefits the community
have a rateable value of £17,000 or less

Apply for Rural Relief

Complete and return a Rural Relief Application Form (Word, 41kb).

Disabled Rates Relief

Relief of non-domestic rates can be granted for an organisation that provides training, welfare or care for disabled persons. To qualify for relief the premises must be used for 1 of the following:

the provision of residential accommodation for the care or aftercare of disabled persons or people suffering from illness
the provision of training or activity facilities for disabled persons or persons suffering from illness
the provision of welfare services for disabled persons
the provision of employment or work facilities for disabled persons
the provision of sheltered employment by a local authority
ancillary purposes (eg office space, laundry, canteen) whose main purpose is to support premises which provide care to disabled people and already receives disabled relief

Please note: Institutions whose main purpose is to provide medical treatment are not eligible, eg hospitals, doctor surgeries, dental surgeries.

Apply for Disabled Rate Relief

Complete and return a Disabled Rates Relief application form (Word, 46kb).

Please note: If applying for disabled rates relief for a nursing home, we'll require details of the number and type of staff in the nursing home. It's not essential for the purposes of this application that your staff have professional nursing or medical qualifications.

Day Nursery Relief

From 1 April 2018, 100% relief may be granted to a ratepayer where the premises are used wholly or mainly as a nursery school as defined in Section 135 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 and which also provides day care for children a defined in paragraph 13 of schedule 12 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

Please contact us to see if your property qualifies.

New and Improved Property Relief

Also known as Business Growth Accelerator Relief, is available from 1 April 2018, for new build property and to existing properties being expanded or improved.

New build properties – if you are a ratepayer of a newly build property first entered onto the Valuation Roll from 1 April 2018 onwards, you will pay no rates until the property is occupied.

Once occupied, you will continue to receive 100% rates relief for a further 12 months.

Expanded or improved properties – if a property is expanded or improved and the rateable value increases as a result of this, you will not pay the increase for 12 months. The rates for this period will be based on the rateable value prior to the improvements being made.

Apply for New and Improved Property Relief

An application form will be available here in the near future. In the meantime, please contact the Business Rates team.

Renewable Energy Generation Relief

Relief can be awarded where a property is used solely for the generation of heat or power or both from the following sources:

Biomass
Biofuels
Fuel cells
Photovoltaics
Water (including waves and tides, but excluding the pumped storage of water)
Wind
Solar power
Geothermal sources

If you produce renewable heat or power from any of the sources noted above, a reduction can be made as shown in the table below, only if your scheme has arrangements in place that entitle community organisations to:

at least 15% of the annual profit
so much of the annual profit is attributable to 0.5 megawatt (or more) of the total installed capacity of the project

Generation activity must take place at the eligible property to be eligible for this relief.

Combined rateable value of business properties
Combined rateable value of all business properties in Scotland	% of Relief
£145,000 or less	100%
More than £145,000 but not exceeding £430,000	50%
More than £430,000 but not exceeding £860,000	25%
More than £860,000 but not exceeding £4,000,000	10%
More than £4,000,000	2.5%

Hydro Schemes – From 1 April 2018, a reduction of 60% is available where renewable heat or power is produced from water, provided the rateable value of the scheme is less than £5,000,000.

This does not require the scheme to meet the qualifying criteria relating to community involvement or total installed capacity limits.

Please contact us to see if your property qualifies.

District Heating Relief

From 1 April 2017 relief is available where a property is used wholly or mainly for the purposes of a district heating network.

A district heating network is the distribution of thermal energy in the form of steam, hot water or chilled liquids from a central source of production through a network to multiple buildings or sites for the use of space or process heating, cooling or hot water and includes any attached communal heating.

Communal heating is defined as the distribution of thermal energy in the form of steam, hot water or chilled liquids from a central source in a building which is occupied by more than one final customer, for the use of space or process heating, cooling or hot water.

Please contact us to see if your property qualifies.

Transitional Relief (TR) for financial years 2023 to 2026

From 1 April 2023, Scottish Government have made provisions to limit the increase in Non Domestic Rates charges resulting from the 2023 revaluation exercise. These cover general revaluation transitional relief, small business and rural transitional relief and parks transitional relief, details of these are as follows:

General Revaluation Transitional Relief

Where you are entitled to this relief, it will be automatically awarded to your Non Domestic Rates account, no application is required.

To be eligible your property requires to have been shown in an entry on the valuation roll on both 31 March 2023 and 1 April 2023. Properties with a nil rateable value on 1 April 2023, or which had a nil rateable value on 31 March 2023 are not eligible.

The following limits will apply to the increases in gross charges from the position at 31 March 2023.

The 2023 Revaluation Transitional Relief caps for each year are as follows:

2023 Revaluation Transitional Relief caps
Rateable Value	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Small (up to £20,000)	12.5%	25%	37.5%
Medium (£20,000 to £100,000)	25%	50%	75%
Large (over £100,000)	37.5%	75%	112.5%

Small Business and Rural Transitional Relief

This relief is available to cap the maximum increase in the net rates liability relative to 31 March 2023 at £600 in 2023-24, after any relief is available, for properties which:

were entitled to Small Business Bonus Scheme Relief on 31 March 2023, and/or
were entitled to mandatory or discretionary Rural Relief on 31 March 2023 and are no longer entitled on 1 April 2023 as a result of a rateable value increase due to the 2023 revaluation.

To be eligible the property requires to have been shown in an entry on the valuation roll on both 31 March 2023 and 1 April 2023. Properties with a nil rateable value on 1 April 2023, or which had a nil rateable value on 31 March 2023 are not eligible.

Apply for Small Business and Rural Transitional Relief

An application form will be available here in the near future. In the meantime, please contact the Business Rates team.

Parks Transitional Relief

Some parks or parts of parks that existed but were exempt from valuation for Non Domestic Rating on 31 March 2023 have become rateable on 1 April 2023. Such cases are eligible for 67% relief.

Apply for Parks Transitional Relief

An application form will be available here in the near future. In the meantime, please contact the Business Rates team.

Subsidy Control

Some reliefs are affected by subsidy control rules. These reliefs are offered as a Minimum Financial Assistance (MFA) subsidy under the Subsidy Control Act 2022. MFA is caped at a maximum of £315,000 over a three year period, cumulated over the current and previous two financial years.

To ensure that the Council complies with the subsidy regime, it may be required to cap relief at the MFA maximum limit. This may depend on:

the level of other public sector assistance received by your entity
whether or not you have an interest in any business with other properties in receipt, or eligible, for one of the existing rate relief schemes.

You are required to keep a written record of the amount of any MFA received, and the date (s) when it was received, for at least three years from the date it was given. Any award of MFA exceeding £100,000 is subject to transparency requirements and will be published.

Not all reliefs are considered to be capped in this way. Relevant relief applications will detail if the MFA limit applies and request the relevant information required.

The specified reliefs subject to these measure are: