Your business rates bill is calculated by multiplying the rateable value of your property by a uniform business rate (UBR) multiplier.
Any relief or other adjustment to which you are entitled is then applied.
The rateable value and the UBR multiplier are both calculated and maintained by the government's Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and by central government, not by the council.
Rateable value
A property's rateable value is an assessment of the annual rent the property would demand if it was available to let on the open market at a fixed valuation date.
The latest rating lists came into effect on 1 April 2010 and are based on a valuation date of 1 April 2008.
Rateable values are reviewed every five years; the next review will take place in 2015.
You can check your property's rateable value on the VOA's business rates webpages and, if need be, appeal against your rateable value.
Uniform business rate multiplier
The UBR multiplier for 2010-11 is 41.4p, or 40.7p for small businesses.
This means that for every £1 of rateable value, a ratepayer is required to pay 41.4p in business rates (before any relief is taken into account).
Transitional arrangements
Revaluations of all properties take place every five years; the last one was in 2010.
If your rates bill changed significantly as a result of this revaluation it will probably be affected by a transitional adjustment.
Transitional arrangements soften the impact of revaluation by phasing in increases or decreases to business rates over a period of time.
Transitional relief is automatically calculated by us and will be reflected in your bill.
Find out more about transitional relief on www.mybusinessrates.gov.uk.
