Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The government needs to say whether the current one-year business rates holiday for retail and hospitality businesses is going to be extended.
So says John Webber, head of business rates of property consultancy Colliers International, which has monitored the number of business rates appeals flooding the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), part of HM Revenue & Customs, which is tasked with processing complaints as part of a three-stage “check, challenge, appeal” process.
According to Colliers, some 170,000 businesses have taken the first step towards appealing against their rates since the pandemic began in the UK in March. That is more than the total number in the three previous years, during which 159,000 queried their rates.
>See also: Chancellor Rishi Sunak may scrap business rates in favour of a land tax
Partly, it’s the government’s own fault that the VOA is so swamped with business rates appeals.
Businesses are being forced into challenging ratings assessments now because the government has yet to announce whether the one-year business rates holiday for retail and hospitality announced in March is going to be extended.
Business rates are a tax on properties that are used for commercial purposes and are charged based on an estimate