Should I Pay Business Rates On My Holiday Home? - Your Replies

We had a large response following our article Should I Pay Business Rates on My Holiday Home. Many Holiday Home owner’s report they are already paying business rates and are making considerable savings by only paying 50% under the Government’s Business Rates Relief Scheme. On the downside you have to pay extra to have the bins emptied.

Typical is an e-mail from Miss S of Scotland

Perhaps we are lucky in Scotland, but because I have one holiday letting business for more than 140 days a year, I qualify for Small Business Relief and pay almost no rates, a nominal £200 a year. This is Scotland, Highland Region, so perhaps is a local project. Mind you, the Council hits back in other ways. I have to pay individually for each time the house bin is emptied- at £2.50 a time, and of course each set of visitors expects an empty bin.

Mr R of Cornwall says

Good article, clearly explaining the ground rules. A point to bear in mind is that in many instances, Business Rates (if you are eligible to claim the 50% Small Business Rate Relief) are actually cheaper than Council Tax - it's worth finding out the cost of each before committing.

Many respondents (probably wrongly) feel they have the option to choose whether to pay council tax or business rates. The current rules state any holiday cottages or self catering units used for commercial purposes may be charged business rates if they are available for letting for 140 days or more in a financial year. However, your property can be available for letting throughout the year, and providing you make a conscious decision to only accept bookings for a total of 139 days (or less) then you will be rated for council tax.

A final professional word from Mr A from Merseyside

I refer to your email. I’m pleased to see someone drawing attention to this. I’m an accountant in practice and when decisions are made as to the benefits of “Furnished Holiday Lettings” (FHLs) the issue of Council Tax v Uniform Business Rates seems to get “shoved under the carpet” by a lot of people. I guess there are many thousands of people getting the benefits of the first, without paying the second. I must admit, it took very careful reading of the rules, and a newspaper article drawing my attention to the issue, before I realized that FHL goes with Uniform Business Rates, ordinary furnished letting goes with Council Tax.