Business Rates and Relocation

What are Business Rates?

Business Rates, or Non-Domestic Rates as they are sometimes known, are payable to the Council who collect them on behalf of the Government.

Business Rates are a tax payable for all occupied and some unoccupied business premises. They are collected by all Councils from businesses in their area.

Premises that are subject to business rates are given a rateable value by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) who are part of the Inland Revenue. Local authorities use the VOA's assessment of a property's rateable value to calculate business rates bills. The rateable value is based on the likely annual open market rent for the premises at a particular date.

The business rates you are charged are calculated using the rateable value and the multiplier, the rateable value is set by the Valuation Office, and the multiplier set by Central Government.

Business Rates collected by billing authorities on behalf of Central Government are paid into a central pool and redistributed to billing authorities and major precepting authorities.

Changes to Empty Property Business Rate Relief

From 1 April 2008, the Government introduced changes to empty property relief in order to provide an incentive to bring empty property back into use. For full details, visit our Business Rates - Discounts and Exemptions page.

How do I pay my Business Rates?

You can pay your Business rates online using a credit or debit card on our Payments page. There is a surcharge of 1.5% on credit and non-UK debit cards. We do not charge you if you use a UK debit card.

You can also use our Automated Payment telephone line or visit one of our Customer Service Centres.

You should contact our Business Rates Team for more information about paying your Business Rates.

What do I do if I move property?

In order to make sure we are billing you for the correct amount of Business Rates, you need to inform us when:

you move into a new business premises
you move out of a business premises
you have recently moved into Oxford
any other change in circumstances

Visit our Moving Premises pages for full details and to inform us of changes online.

What is revaluation?

Every 5 years all non-domestic properties are subject to revaluation. The revaluation, or reassessment, of all rateable values is carried out by the Valuation Office Agency to ensure that they are kept up to date and reflect changes in the property market. The most recent revaluation came into effect on 1 April 2005.

Transitional arrangements are in place during each 5 year period so that the effects of any large increase or decrease in Business Rates are phased in.