Business Rates Calculator

Business rates are worked out by multiplying a property's rateable value by the multiplier for its band, then taking off any relief. Rateable value is the Valuation Office Agency's figure for the rent the property could have let for, year to year, on the open market at the valuation date, which is 1 April 2024 for the rating lists that started in England and Wales on 1 April 2026 and 1 April 2025 for Scotland's new roll. It is not your actual rent, although it is usually close to a fair rent at that date, which is why this calculator can estimate it from rent if you do not have the figure. You can look up the real value with the VOA's business rates search in England and Wales, or on the Scottish Assessors' site.

England changed its multipliers from April 2026. Every property with a rateable value below £51,000 is billed at the small business multiplier of 43.2p, whether or not it gets relief; £51,000 to £499,999 pays 48p; and £500,000 or more pays a new high-value rate of 50.8p. Occupied shops, cafés, restaurants, pubs, takeaways, salons, gyms, cinemas, hotels, holiday lets and similar premises below £500,000 instead pay 38.2p or 43p, 5p below the national rates, which replaced the 40% retail, hospitality and leisure relief that ended on 31 March 2026. Banks, surgeries, dentists, vets, estate agents, solicitors, betting shops and online warehouses do not qualify. For 2026/27 only, existing properties that get neither transitional relief nor Supporting Small Business relief also pay a 1p supplement.

Small Business Rate Relief removes the whole bill for a single property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less, and tapers in a straight line to nothing at £15,000, so £13,500 gets 50% and £14,000 a third. You can still claim it with extra small properties if each is below £2,900 and the total stays under £20,000, or £28,000 in London. If you take on a second property on or after 27 November 2025 you keep the relief for 3 years, rather than 1. At most it is worth about £5,200 a year (£12,000 at 43.2p). Other reliefs include 80% for charities and community amateur sports clubs, 100% rural rate relief for the only shop or post office in a village under 3,000 people (rateable value up to £8,500) or the only pub or petrol station (up to £12,500), and a 15% relief in 2026/27 for pubs and live music venues.

The 2026 revaluation moved many bills, so two schemes limit sudden increases. Transitional relief caps the rise in England at 5% in 2026/27 for properties up to £20,000 (£28,000 in London), 15% up to £100,000 and 30% above that, with bigger steps in the next two years. Supporting Small Business relief helps anyone who lost small business, rural or retail, hospitality and leisure relief on 1 April 2026: their bill can rise by no more than £800 or the transitional cap, whichever is greater, compared with 2025/26. Enter last year's bill in the calculator to apply that cap. Your council applies transitional relief automatically, and reductions from the revaluation take effect straight away.

Wales and Scotland run their own systems. Wales has three multipliers for 2026/27: 35p for shops, kiosks, pharmacies and post offices below £51,000, 50.2p for most other properties and 51.5p above £100,000. Welsh small business relief is 100% up to £6,000, tapering to nothing at £12,000, and 100% up to £9,000 for post offices, while pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars and live music venues can claim a 15% food and drink relief this year. Scotland charges 48.1p up to £51,000, 53.5p to £100,000 and 54.8p above. Its Small Business Bonus Scheme gives 100% up to £12,000, tapering to 25% at £15,000 and to nothing at £20,000, and retail, hospitality and leisure properties up to £100,000 get 15% relief, or 40% for hotels, pubs, restaurants, cafés, nightclubs and music venues.

Holiday lets pay business rates rather than council tax only if they are genuinely run as a business. In England and Scotland a self-catering property must have been available for at least 140 nights and actually let for at least 70 nights, and in England it must also be available for 140 nights in the coming year; Scotland also requires a short-term let licence. Wales sets a much higher bar of 252 nights available and 182 let. Many small holiday lets in England then pay nothing, because they fall within Small Business Rate Relief, which is why councils check the letting evidence closely.

If the valuation itself looks wrong, the route is Check, Challenge, Appeal. Check confirms the basic facts held on GOV.UK, such as square footage and how the property has been classified. Challenge means submitting evidence within 4 months that the valuation is incorrect, usually rental evidence from comparable properties or an error in the description. Appeal escalates the matter to the Valuation Tribunal when a Challenge is rejected. About 30% of Challenges end in a reduced rateable value, and assessments from before 2023 could be pursued by retrospective claim, recovering overpaid rates for up to 6 years.

Your council issues the bill and normally collects it in 10 monthly instalments from April to January, or 12 if you ask. A shop in England with a rateable value of £20,000 is above the relief threshold, so it pays 38.2p plus the 1p supplement: £7,840 a year, or £784 a month over 10 instalments. The same premises used as an office would pay 43.2p plus 1p, which is £8,840.