The Lemon Fool

We have two holiday lets which were each originally bought as part-holiday-home, part-holiday-let. In reality they have both been holiday let businesses for many years, but we have always paid council tax on them. The announcement of the Covid-19 business rates holiday prompted me to get my act together to switch to business rates. I wrote to the local council and the process is underway but I don't fully understand what happens and what action I need to take.

So far I have received a "Council Tax: Notice of Deletion of an Existing Entry in the Valuation List" from the Valuation Office Agency and refund of the last 4 years of Council Tax - for one of our properties

• How will I find out what my business rates are and when will I pay them?
• I understand I have to pay to have the household waste uplifted. Will the council continue doing that but start charging me or do I need to request it?
• So far only one of our properties seems to be getting changed, but don't business rates change of you have more than one business address?

Thanks
C

I will not make any comment because I do not know the answer but it has always infuriated me that a holiday let near me has always had their bins uplifted for free because he was paying Council Tax (which the guy openly boasted about) He has since sold the place and the new owners are reverting to actually living in the house.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:I will not make any comment because I do not know the answer but it has always infuriated me that a holiday let near me has always had their bins uplifted for free because he was paying Council Tax (which the guy openly boasted about) He has since sold the place and the new owners are reverting to actually living in the house.

Dod

I don't understand the issue. If he was paying council tax, he was paying for council services which included getting the bins uplifted, surely???

Do you mean that he was paying business rates but the business rates allowances meant he didn't pay any local taxes ... and that the council were continuing to uplift his bin without charging him. I am expecting to pay for bin uplift.

What the guy said was that although he was letting his house fulltime as a holiday let and thus should have been under the Business Rates regime he was actually paying Council Tax. He seemed to think that worked out cheaper and of course included free uplift of his bins. From the way he spoke it was certainly advantageous to him.

I do not know as I have no interest but his attitude annoyed me and his immediate neighbours.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:What the guy said was that although he was letting his house fulltime as a holiday let and thus should have been under the Business Rates regime he was actually paying Council Tax. He seemed to think that worked out cheaper and of course included free uplift of his bins. From the way he spoke it was certainly advantageous to him.
Dod

I am not an expert and I may be in for a shock, but I thought business rates usually worked out quite a lot less for a furnished holiday let. It is because of Small Business Rate relief.

As I said I do not know; only quoting this rather unpleasant fellow who thankfully has moved on. Anyway the best of luck to you in your endeavour to I suppose do the right thing and if that saves you some money so much the better.

Dod

Clariman wrote:

Dod101 wrote:What the guy said was that although he was letting his house fulltime as a holiday let and thus should have been under the Business Rates regime he was actually paying Council Tax. He seemed to think that worked out cheaper and of course included free uplift of his bins. From the way he spoke it was certainly advantageous to him.
Dod

I am not an expert and I may be in for a shock, but I thought business rates usually worked out quite a lot less for a furnished holiday let. It is because of Small Business Rate relief.

Which only applies in full if you have just the one property.

In your case, there are lots of ifs and buts:-
https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-business-r ... ate-relief
If you use more than one property
When you get a second property, you’ll keep getting any existing relief on your main property for 12 months.

You can still get small business rate relief on your main 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)

the process is underway.

Having deleted from Council Tax, the VOA will value the property for Rateable Value. That might involve the VOA wanting to inspect and measure the property. A new entry for the property (hereditament) would be put on the (rating) List and the Billing Authority informed. if you don't agree with the Rateable Value then it can be appealed but whether to appeal depends upon the potential saving in RV versus the potential saving in rates payable.

The VOA list can be inspected here: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/business-rates-find/search

In due course, the billing Authority will invoice/demand the business rates for the period and year concerned. Business rates are the UBR (uniform business rate) in the £ for each year multiplied by the Rateable Value. Any reliefs or exemptions from full rates would appear on the demand. You should ensure that the BA has your address for correspondence, otherwise the demands might be sent to the property. Business rates are payable in advance. generally, BA's will accept payment by standing order in 10 monthly instalments.