Kenya Aid Programme v Sheffield City Council

By jbc_admin

The High Court has allowed an appeal by a charity against an order to pay business rates in excess of £1,600,000. Charities are entitled to mandatory business rates relief if a property they occupy is used wholly or mainly for charitable purposes. In this case the charity had taken a lease on two warehouse units…

Business Rates – VOA v Mazars LLP

By jbc_admin

A Court of Appeal has upheld the finding of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) that non-adjoining floors in the same building, occupied by the same business, can be treated as a single hereditament for rating purposes. The three Lord Justices of Appeal unanimously confirmed in a Upper Tribunals decision based on a common sense assessment…

Review your Business Rates Bill

By jbc_admin

Business rates are a large part of the cost of occupying any property and there are many examples of business’ that have run into financial difficulty because of these high charges. Business rates are assessed by the Valuation Office Agency and are collected by the local authority. The calculation is based on your properties rental…

Could we be seeing a Local Authority Dash for the Cash?

By jbc_admin

The Local Government Finance Act 2012 creates a new model for funding local authorities from April 2013, linking their financial revenue to the decisions they take to support local firms and local jobs. Local authorities across the country will retain a 50% local share of the business rates they collect and then keep a 50%…

Business Rates: Are Northern Businesses set to Subsidise their Southern Brothers?

By jbc_admin

The Government’s proposals to cancel the 2015 rates revaluation will see many small struggling businesses forced to pay taxes against 2008 valuations, made near the peak of the property boom. This decision was meant to go unnoticed, slipped in without warning and without consultation, and to rub salt into the wound Ministers, somewhat unconvincingly, claim…

Government to review empty property rates legislation

By jbc_admin

The Estates Gazette has revealed that the government could review empty property rates legislation after a freedom of information request showed that the government was spending more than £50 million in tax per year on its own vacant properties, an amount which is expected to rise to £70 million for the current year 2012-2013. The…

Former Industrial Site, Greater Manchester

By jbc_admin

Working with our client we devised an empty rates mitigation strategy involving temporary occupation of the property resulting in savings of circa £17,000 in empty rates to our client in the current year.

Office Building, Salford

By jbc_admin

We appealed the 2010 rating assessment on the grounds that the rateable value was excessive and successfully achieved a reduction in the rateable value of more that 30%, resulting in significant savings for our client.

Factory Premises, Oldham

By jbc_admin

This property was recently purchased by a client and we appealed against rateable value on the grounds of a material change in circumstance resulting in a reduction in the rateable value from £69,000 to £60,000.

Westlink Industrial Estate, Leigh

By jbc_admin

A modern single storey industrial estate in prominent position fronting East Lancs Road where we appealed against the rateable value of £126,000 and had this reduced to £92,000.