Twat of The Day

From City AM Forum:

While I agree that business rates are crippling small businesses (1), there are practical solutions available. My company has just moved from Westminster to Battersea, and the savings we have made are fantastic. (2)

You can apply for small business rates relief from your local council, and look for tapered relief. Or check for a material change in circumstance when, for example, maintenance work alters the footfall outside your business. And check that you are extracting all the tax deductions from business development and structural alterations – are your premises capable of beneficial occupation? If not, apply for a rates holiday from your council.(3)

Andrew Edwards, AppleCapital Print Management

1) No they aren't.

This is Home-Owner-Ist propaganda. Business Rates themselves are only a tiny fraction of all the taxes which businesses have to pay - so it would be prefectly reasonable to argue that VAT and PAYE are killing business, for example, but not Business Rates - and Business Rates are in any event just part of the total occupation costs/rent.

When Business Rates are reduced then the rents which landlords demand go up £ for £ because the total rental value of any site remains exactly the same so the only person who loses out from Business Rates is the landowner. The bulk of what he is charging for is amenities provided by third parties anyway, it's not like he can take his land abroad or anything.

2) He would have stopped right there. Of course his f-ing Business Rates bill has gone down, his rent bill has gone down as well because rents are a lot lower in Battersea than in Westminster. D'oh!

3) The last part of his letter is all just guff and he doesn't appear to know what he is talking about anyway.

"Beneficial occupation" is not a particular kind of occupation, it is a term used to establish the person who is legally liable to pay the tax i.e. the actual occupier (whether tenant or owner) has "beneficial occupation" and if premises are vacant then clearly the absentee owner is entitled to occupy the premises and hence he is liable.

Clearly, if a building cannot be occupied then it has no rental value and so you get an exemption (which is why Site Value Rating would be better - it discourages owners from letting buildings fall into disrepair). So his use of the word "beneficial" was  superfluous at worst and misleading at best.