Non-domestic rates relief
Changes from 01 April 2023↑
The amount of relief awarded may be restricted by Scottish Government legislation.
More information is given at Subsidy control.
Local business owners may qualify for a reduction in their business rates. There are 2 types of relief available:
- mandatory
- discretionary
You are entitled to mandatory relief if you are a registered charity occupying a non-domestic property. We can award additional relief to charities and non-profit organisations known as discretionary relief.
The Discretionary rates relief policy provides more information:
Please contact us to check that you will qualify for Discretionary Rates Relief on the property you intend occupying.
Small Business Bonus Scheme↑
You may be entitled to Small Business Bonus relief if all of these are true:
- the combined rateable value of all your business premises is £35,000 or less
- the rateable values of individual premises are £20,000 or less
- the property is actively occupied
It's free to apply for rates relief, including the Small Business Bonus Scheme. You should be wary of anyone who proposes to apply on your behalf for a fee.
Subsidy control (previously de minimis state aid)↑
Ratepayers should note that certain types of non-domestic rates relief is capped by the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement de minimis threshold.
From 01 April 2021 The Non-Domestic Rates (Restriction on Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 set a cap on the aggregate financial amount that can be awarded in the form of specified non-domestic rates reliefs. In calculating the cap regard must be had to relief or assistance that prior to EU Exit would have been considered de minimis state aid (financial support from the government).
The specified reliefs now subject to these measures are:
- Day Nursery relief
- District Heating relief
- Enterprise Areas relief
- Renewable Energy relief
- Rural relief
- Telephone Mast relief
- Transitional relief
These reliefs and any de minimis assistance, when added together, must not exceed 325,000 Special Drawing Rights.
Applying for relief
If you consider that you, or any other company you have a single undertaking relationship with in the UK, have already received support from UK, Scottish and Local Government in excess of, or close to this sum you must declare this if applying for any further support.
Not all grants or relief awards are considered to be capped in this way, therefore we will only ask for this information where appropriate.
Special Drawing Rights
Special Drawing Rights (SDR) are an artificial currency instrument created by the International Monetary Fund, which uses them for internal accounting purposes.
The value of the SDR is calculated from a weighted basket of major currencies, including the US dollar, the Euro, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, and British pound.
The 325,000 figure is the threshold set for de minimis relief by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement entered into on 30 December 2020 between the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and the United Kingdom.