THOSE in the local business community are being encouraged to attend a meeting at Fermanagh House today to discuss this year’s revaluation on business rates, which could see their bill either going up or down depending on their property.
Enniskillen BID is helping the Department of Finance (DoF) and the Land and Property Service (LPS) with its local roll out of ‘Reval2023’, which will see a new draft valuation of almost 75,000 business properties across the North, including many here in the county.
This will result in a new rate bill, which is based on a property’s value, for many business from April this year.
Most non-domestic properties – from shops to offices, factories to warehouses, hotels to pubs – are charged business rates. The last time these properties were revalued was just three years ago, the shortest time ever between revaluations, which has been in response to calls from businesses for their property values to be reviewed more frequently.
While this exercise will see most businesses’ rates bills stay the same, many could see their bills reduced. However, the DoF warned others may also see theirs increase as a result.
“As with all revaluations the outcome can vary for an individual property, and not all ratepayers will see a reduced rateable valuation,” said a spokesman.
“Some sectors and locations have experienced above average growth.”
They added 64 percent of properties would see no change to their rateable value, compared to 60 percent under the previous Reval2020. The spokesman said for the 75 percent of businesses who receive some form of rate relief, “in all but a very small number of cases,” these reliefs would not be affected by the revaluation.
Hospitality businesses are most likely to see their bills going down, with a general decrease across the board of the value of pubs, for example.
The value of retail property has also fallen, which will likely result in a decrease for shops too.
On the other hand, offices, warehouses and factory properties have increased in value, which may see bills rise for some local businesses in those areas.
Angela McGrath, commissioner of valuation at LPS said the revaluation would mean business rate payers would be billed relative to their 2021 rental value, instead of 2018 values as at present.
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