COVID-19 Business Rates Holiday Winds Down
Information as of 1 July 2021
Early on during the COVID-19 crisis, both the UK and Scottish Governments paused the payment of business rates for retail, leisure and hospitality firms.
For businesses in England, this business rates holiday ends as of today (1 July 2021) and is replaced with a rates discount.
Affected businesses will now see their rates reduced by two-thirds for nine months until 31 March 2022. There will be also be a cap of £2m on the amount of relief available for those businesses whose premises were forced to close during the pandemic. For those businesses who were legally allowed to open during the national lockdown starting 5 January the cap is £105,000.
For retail, hospitality, leisure and eligible aviation businesses based in Scotland, the 100% rates relief will continue to be available until at least 31 March 2022. However, from April 2021, you need to fill in an application form with your local council to receive this relief.
It is believed that almost 400,000 firms have benefited from the tax break over the past 15 months as part of the Treasury’s COVID-19 financial support package.
Another change today includes removal of the nil rate Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) introduced in Summer 2020 on property or land purchases of up to £500,000 in England and Northern Ireland. The threshold where SDLT starts to apply will is to £250,000 until 30 September 2021 before returning to £125,000 on 1 October 2021.
To check all the latest COVID-19 business measures visit our COVID-19 updates page.
