Small business rate relief: up to 100% off in England

Business rates are a tax on non-domestic property in England: shops, offices, pubs, warehouses, workshops, small bakeries and studios. Your local council sends the bill, usually in February or March, for the following tax year. But small businesses have a legal discount — Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) — and it often wipes the bill out completely. Here is who qualifies and how to claim.

Who can get the relief?

You can get relief if you use only one property and its rateable value is less than £15,000. The rateable value is set by the Valuation Office Agency, not the council; you can check it and, if needed, challenge it on GOV.UK. You cannot get SBRR at the same time as charitable rate relief.

How much is taken off?

If your rateable value is £12,000 or less, the relief is 100% — you pay no business rates at all. Between £12,001 and £15,000 the relief tapers gradually from 100% down to 0%. For example, a rateable value of £13,500 gets 50% off, and £14,000 gets 33% off. That is why it pays to know your property's exact rateable value: it decides the size of your relief.

What if you have more than one property?

Relief is normally given on one property only. If you take on a second, relief on your main property continues for a while: 12 months if you got the second property before 27 November 2025, and 36 months if on or after 27 November 2025. After that, you keep the relief only if two things apply: none of your other properties has a rateable value above £2,899, and the total rateable value of all your properties is under £20,000 (£28,000 in London).

What about the tax rate?

Even without relief, properties with a rateable value below £51,000 are charged using the small business multiplier. For 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 it is 43.2p, against the standard multiplier of 48p, and shops, cafes and hotels get an even lower multiplier of 38.2p. Your yearly bill is roughly the rateable value times the multiplier, minus any relief.

How to apply

You apply through your local council — it decides which relief you qualify for and handles the claim. Relief is not applied automatically, so when you start up or move to a new property, apply straight away. The council can also tell you whether SBRR can be combined with other business rates reliefs.