Thousands of businesses to again pay property tax as business rates holiday ends
Thousands of businesses will soon again face paying property taxes, as the business rates holiday comes to an end later this week.
Last April the government paused business rates for the hardest hit retail, leisure and hospitality companies.
Some 394,601 businesses benefitted from the rates holiday, which saved them around £13.8bn.
But from 1 July, and for the remaining nine months of the financial year, the relief from the business rate holiday will reduce from 100 per cent to 66 per cent, capped at £2m per business for properties that had to close on 5 January 2021, when the UK entered its most recent major lockdown.
Impacted properties will be hit by around £5bn in tax liabilities for the rest of the year, according to property Altus Group.
The further relief is expected to cost the Treasury £3.3bn, taking the total cost of relief to £17.1bn.
UK president of property tax at Altus Group, Robert Hayton, said the recovery of affected firms was being threatened, adding: “with support now tapering off, it is perverse for the government to be simultaneously legislating against the impact of the pandemic on property values by retrospectively denying hundreds of thousands of firms the ordinary right of appeal to lower their bills.”