Home > Business > Business Rates > Rate relief > Small business rate relief

Small business rate relief

You can get small business rate relief if you:

  • only use one property, and its rateable value is less than £15,000
  • use more than one property, and the rateable value of each of your other properties is less than £2,900, with the rateable value of all these properties combined being less than £20,000. 

You can only get small business rate relief on one property.

Small business rate relief is not automatically applied to your account, you must apply for it if you think you qualify.

If you don't qualify for relief but your occupied property has a rateable value of less than £51,000 you will still pay less.  Your bill will be automatically calculated using the small business rate multiplier (even if you have more than one property).

Apply for small business rate relief »

 

Where the ratepayer is a person the ratepayer must complete the application, and in any other case for example a company, it must be completed by a person with authority to do so on behalf of the ratepayer.

How much you will get

  • If your 2023 rateable value is £12,000 or below, small business rate relief will be given at 100%.
  • If your 2023 rateable value is between £12,001 and £14,999 inclusive, the small business rate multiplier is used and relief will be given on a sliding scale - from 100% at the bottom of the range to 0% at the top.

Backdated small business rate relief

Small business rate relief will not always be backdated to the date you became liable for your property. The earliest we can backdate the relief in most cases is 1 April 2012, but in some instances this date may be later.   

If you take on an additional property

For those businesses that take on an additional property which would normally have meant the loss of small business rate relief, the government has confirmed that they will be allowed to keep that relief for a period of 12 months.  If you take on an additional property, inside or outside of the Dover district, you must contact us straight away. 

If something changes

If something changes that could affect your small business rate relief you must tell us straight away.