Council Tax Legal Services

This Practice Note covers liability for business rates for unoccupied property, including common exemptions (often known as ‘empty rates relief’). The common exemptions include an exemption for the initial period (either three months or six months), insolvency exemptions, exemptions for charities and the discretion of the local authority to grant further relief. The Practice Note also covers a landlord’s liability at the end of a lease, landlord’s empty rates schemes and the six-week period required to trigger a new initial exemption. It can assist when considering if a landlord is entitled to relief on business rates for empty premises.

This Practice Note outlines the statutory requirements for enforcing payment of council tax. It sets out the statutory requirements for demanding sums owed, the process of issuing a summons for a debtor to appear at the magistrates’ court together with methods of enforcement such as attachment of earnings, charging of property and, in very extreme cases, committal to prison.

This Practice Note covers who is liable for business rates, the three categories of taxpayer identified by the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (occupiers, owners and persons named in central rating lists), the definition of ‘hereditament’, rateable occupation and the position regarding tenant’s fit out works.

This Practice Note is one of a series of Practice Notes covering national non-domestic rates (NNDR). This Practice Note covers billing and recovery, the collection fund, transitional reliefs and exemptions from the operation of the system.

This Practice Note is one of a series of notes covering National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR). It covers business improvement districts (BIDs), explaining what they are, how they are created and funded. It also covers business rates supplements and retention of NNDR by local authorities.

This Practice Note is an introduction to the system of non-domestic rates (or business rates) for non-domestic (NNDR) properties in England and Wales. It outlines the background to the operation of the scheme, provides detail on how the valuation process works. It explains how to check, challenge and if necessary make a proposal to amend a local list or appeal against decisions that have been made. It is the first of a series of three notes covering the operation of the NNDR scheme