
The Business Rates collected by Councils is paid into a central pool and redistributed on a population basis to Councils. There are special arrangements for the City of London. This income, together with income from Council Tax and the Revenue Support Grant from central Government, is used to pay for the services provided by the Council.
With effect from 31 July 2009 you may be able to spread the payment of the increase in your 2009/10 Business Rates bill (compared to last year's charge) over three years. If you are eligible, you will be sent an explanatory letter, an application form and an information leaflet produced by the Government as soon as possible, but at the latest by the end of August 2009.
You can apply for this facility at any time up until 31 March 2010 unless you have already paid your bill in full, but if you fall into arrears you may lose the automatic right to take advantage of the scheme. If you have more than one property you only need to complete one application form.
You may defer payment of at least 3% of your bill, or more if your property was subject to Transitional Relief in respect of your 2008/9 bill. Your deferred payments will then need to be paid in equal amounts in 2010/11 and 2011/12.
If you want to apply and have not yet received the application form, please visit the Communities website.
The National Non-Domestic Rates 2010 revaluation will take effect from 1 April 2010. The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is preparing to contact all rate payers during the late summer or autumn of 2009 in conjunction with publishing details of the new Lists.
Further details and key information can be seen on the VOA's website.
As a nationally determined 'property tax', there are no legislative provisions upon Councils to provide services specifically for Business Rate payers. However, in addition to providing a range of services to the Business community (for which there may be a separate charge), the Council actively seeks consultation in determining its expenditure plans. Formal consultation normally takes place twice a year November and January.
The explanatory notes leaflet for 2009/10 is available below.
The new secure self-service system is an ideal way to view general information about Rateable Values within Worthing, or personal details about your Business Rates account.
As a Business Rates payer, you can register to see details about your own account, including the charge, and relief or exemption granted, payments that have been made (but please note that payments made today will not be shown) and finally your account balance.
Please take me to Self Service
Other pages with information about Business Rates are available by using the links on the left-hand side of this page.
The Council has no part in the normal setting of the level of charge for Business Rates, subject to certain discretionary reliefs.
You can search existing rates from our Self Service facility's Rateable Values Search
Both these figures are set by Central Government.
There are two multipliers:
The full charge may be subject to an adjustment in respect of empty rates, reliefs & exemptions or transitional arrangements.
Further information about Business Rates can be obtained from the Business Link website.
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