Small business owners fear that they will be forced to pay inflated rates bills for five years, according to a survey conducted by the Forum of Private Business (FPB).
Just fewer than 80% of respondents said that they think their business rates will increase when changes take place in April 2010.
Business properties are revalued every five years to ensure that rateable values reflect the changes in the property market. However, because the present revaluation is based on rent prices from April 2008 - before the recession - small businesses are concerned that their rates bills will be unfairly high.
"Small businesses are already under a great deal of pressure to pay their business rate bills and most do not see the corresponding value in local authority services. It is extremely important that the government provides an appropriate and fair system of transitional rate relief for small businesses who will see an increase in their rateable value from 2010," said Matt Goodman of the FPB.
www.ukba.co.uk
Showing posts with label business rates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business rates. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Rate relief hit by red-tape delays
Small businesses are facing delays in taking advantage of the Government's rate relief scheme because of the complexities of the software needed to calculate the new rates.
The scheme - which allows firms to defer payment of 60% of the increase in rates bills - came live last week.
Although The Local Government Association believes most councils met the deadline in sending out formal notification to businesses about the scheme the complexity of calculating the rates has led to fears they will not be done in time.
"When the Government announced its business rates deferral scheme at the end of March it claimed to be helping businesses with lower rates bills during the recession," said Jerry Schurder, head of business rates at Gerald Eve.
"In the event businesses have had to continue paying full rates since April and it will not be until October at the earliest that they see any benefit."
www.ukba.co.uk
The scheme - which allows firms to defer payment of 60% of the increase in rates bills - came live last week.
Although The Local Government Association believes most councils met the deadline in sending out formal notification to businesses about the scheme the complexity of calculating the rates has led to fears they will not be done in time.
"When the Government announced its business rates deferral scheme at the end of March it claimed to be helping businesses with lower rates bills during the recession," said Jerry Schurder, head of business rates at Gerald Eve.
"In the event businesses have had to continue paying full rates since April and it will not be until October at the earliest that they see any benefit."
www.ukba.co.uk
Saturday, 18 April 2009
Cash-strapped small businesses are losing out on the chance to defer a potential £7.7bn of tax payments due to poor finance skills
....and a failure to seek out professional advice. New research for the AAT, the leading professional education and membership body for accounting staff, found that an unnecessarily complex tax regime and a lack of finance training is compounding the impact of the recession, at a time when this sector - considered the ‘backbone’ of the economy – needs to make every penny count.
Common mistakes which cost firms cash include incurring fines for late filing of accounts; failing to claim Business Rate Relief and ignorance of opportunities such as the ‘Time to Pay’ scheme, which allows those companies unable to pay their tax bill to spread payments.
Business rates are a major cost to SMEs per annum and rate relief could be worth up to £1200 per firm. Despite this, over £400m of Business Rates Relief goes unclaimed each year, in large part because firms are not aware of the opportunity. The scheme, introduced in 1990, closed on 1st April, further impacting on small businesses.
Read the full article here: http://www.aat.org.uk/about/content/item19416/
www.ukba.co.uk
Common mistakes which cost firms cash include incurring fines for late filing of accounts; failing to claim Business Rate Relief and ignorance of opportunities such as the ‘Time to Pay’ scheme, which allows those companies unable to pay their tax bill to spread payments.
Business rates are a major cost to SMEs per annum and rate relief could be worth up to £1200 per firm. Despite this, over £400m of Business Rates Relief goes unclaimed each year, in large part because firms are not aware of the opportunity. The scheme, introduced in 1990, closed on 1st April, further impacting on small businesses.
Read the full article here: http://www.aat.org.uk/about/content/item19416/
www.ukba.co.uk
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
A Business Rate Rise on 1st April is Economic Madness
The government has announced that it will allow a record 5% rise in business rates
to go ahead on April 1st causing widespread anger among business groups, who claim that many companies will not be able to afford the rise in such difficult economic times.
The 5% increase in the rate will be the biggest since the current system was set-up in 1993. The increase in the rate is based on Retail Price Inflation figures from last September, when prices were very high.
However, since last September the UK economy has officially entered recession and unemployment now stands at over 2m. There are fears that the increase in the rate will cause some small businesses to cease trading.
"Labour is dragging local firms down the road to ruin. It is the height of economic madness to be increasing taxes on local firms in the depth of recession," said Caroline Spelman, shadow communities spokeswoman.
Source: www.newbusiness.co.uk
www.ukba.co.uk
to go ahead on April 1st causing widespread anger among business groups, who claim that many companies will not be able to afford the rise in such difficult economic times.
The 5% increase in the rate will be the biggest since the current system was set-up in 1993. The increase in the rate is based on Retail Price Inflation figures from last September, when prices were very high.
However, since last September the UK economy has officially entered recession and unemployment now stands at over 2m. There are fears that the increase in the rate will cause some small businesses to cease trading.
"Labour is dragging local firms down the road to ruin. It is the height of economic madness to be increasing taxes on local firms in the depth of recession," said Caroline Spelman, shadow communities spokeswoman.
Source: www.newbusiness.co.uk
www.ukba.co.uk
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
