In our News article dated 10 March 2017, we advised that some rates payments for 2017-18 are to be capped at an increase of 12.5% through the creation of a new national relief scheme which will extend to pubs, restaurants and cafes.
However, it has since become apparent through our discussions with clients and Council rates departments that this is not applied automatically; an application has to be made by ratepayers for this relief to take effect.
Th reason for this is that given the Scottish Government only recently enacted the legislation, we understand some Council software suppliers were caught somewhat on the hop and it may be some time before their Business Rates revenues system are updated to reflect the changes. As an interim measure, some Councils require to manually award the appropriate level of transitional relief on to Business Rates accounts.
businessratesadvice.com would be pleased to undertake any such applications on our clients behalf. Please get in touch to discuss further.