Thinking of moving to Scotland from another country in the UK? There are plenty of benefits to working or retiring in Scotland, not least the incredible landscapes and friendly people – but you should keep the tax differences in mind, too.

The Scottish Parliament has been deciding its own income tax bands and rates since 2017, which are separate from those applied in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

As a result, most Scottish taxpayers pay more income tax
than other taxpayers in the UK. With new tax changes coming in Scotland from 6th April 2024, it’s important to consider the tax cost before relocating to Scotland.

Income tax rates in Scotland

Those who live in Scotland pay income tax to the Scottish government on their wages, pensions, and other taxable income. The same tax on dividends and savings interest is applicable in Scotland as in the rest of the UK.

While Scotland also has a tax-free Personal Allowance
of £12,570 for annual earnings below £125,140, it has different tax rates with different thresholds than the tax bands used in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Here are the 2024/2025 tax bands and rates in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK:

Comparison to UK income tax rates

Scotland is introducing a new ‘Advanced’ tax rate from April 2024, which will charge 5% more than the tax bill for equivalent income in other UK countries.

As the Personal Allowance is tapered off on income between £100,000–£125,140, this income band will have a marginal rate of 67.5% compared to 60% elsewhere in the UK.

The Scottish ‘Top’ rate is also increasing from 47%
to 48% this year, compared to the highest rate being 45% in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

This means that the tax system in Scotland is tougher on earnings towards the top of the pay scale. For example, someone with an annual income of £100,000 moving to Scotland could see their tax bill increase by almost £3,350.

Towards the middle, someone earning £40,000 a year would see their tax go up by around £110. Whereas lower down the pay scale, someone earning £25,000 annually would be paying more or less the same basic rate.

Who is considered a Scottish taxpayer?

A person is liable for paying Scottish income tax if they live in Scotland full-time in their primary residence, live in Scotland part-time and stay at another home elsewhere in the UK the rest of the time, or do not have a permanent home but stay in Scotland regularly.

If you spend more time in Scotland than anywhere else during a tax year, even if your main residence is outside of Scotland, then you must pay tax in Scotland for that year.

It might be tricky to determine where your main address is if you have multiple homes – whether you own or rent them or live there for free – or if you travel frequently for work.

This is typically the address where you spend the most time and keep most of your possessions, the place where your family lives (if you have a spouse or civil partner), or the address you use for your accounts with financial or healthcare services.

If HMRC does not have the right address for you on record and you move to or from Scotland, you could be put on the wrong tax code and taxed at the wrong rate.

Get help with UK taxes

A guide to Scottish income tax is available on the government website, with more information on how the tax system works differently in Scotland.

Regardless of where they are in the UK, it’s essential for every earner to make sure they’re on the correct tax code for their income band and aware of how much tax they owe according to their current rate.

Of course, the last thing anyone needs when navigating a move across the UK is to misunderstand their tax situation – so if you need help managing your tax obligations when relocating to Scotland or anywhere else in the UK, get in touch with gbac.

We have a team of knowledgeable accountants in Barnsley who can advise you on UK tax matters – give us a call on 01226 298 298 or email info@gbac.co.uk
to learn more.

The stark financial crisis surrounding Birmingham City Council is a timely reminder of why it’s so crucial to get equal pay right the first time.

Many equal pay claims were made against Birmingham City Council starting from the early 2000s, but the public body tried to minimise its responsibilities – until 2012, when the UK Supreme Court ruled in favour of workers receiving financial compensation.

However, the mounting equal pay compensation bill over the decade since contributed to Birmingham City Council having to file for bankruptcy in September 2023.

On top of struggling to repay hundreds of millions of pounds a month, the council was still failing to address its discriminatory practices around equal pay, having to deal with multiple trade unions to address the ongoing problem.

With other councils across the country facing similar claims and compensation bills worth billions of pounds, overlooking equal pay rules is certainly a costly mistake.

Equal pay for equal work

All employers should already know that workers must legally receive equal pay for performing equal work, regardless of gender – but while this is initially a basic principle, there are some complications that can catch employers out.

For example, it also applies for associated employers, where one organisation has overall control or sets the pay rates and benefits for multiple entities. It also extends to holiday, overtime, sickness, and redundancy payments.

Pension funding, work-related benefits like company cars, performance-related pay rises or bonuses, and pension funding must also be provided on an equal basis.

Not just salaries, but all elements of an employment package should be equal – such as equivalent working hours and annual leave allowances. This includes part-time workers, apprentices, and agency workers as well as full-time employees.

The concept of ‘equal work’ is where things got tricky for Birmingham City Council, where the 2012 discrimination dispute arose over male-dominated roles receiving bonuses that female workers in assistant or hospitality roles didn’t receive.

Equal work doesn’t actually need to be exactly like-for-like – it counts if the work is of equal value or if the same level of skills, responsibilities, and effort is required, even if the roles seem very different (e.g. a warehouse worker vs a clerical worker).

Avoiding disputes over differences in pay

Differences in the terms and conditions of pay are allowed in some situations – such as one worker being more qualified than another, or employed in a different area with a difficult recruitment market – but this must not have anything to do with gender.

The best way for employers to prevent equal pay disputes from arising is to be as transparent as possible about their pay systems, for example, by:

• Taking employee requests for information about equal pay seriously and replying to questions as soon as possible.
• Limiting the number of different pay grading scales within the same organisation for consistency and transparency.
• Being open about pay grading systems and staying accountable to them to prevent discrepancies that could be grounds for a claim.
• Describing work accurately in job descriptions and using consistent titles for roles so they provide objective metrics.
• Clearly defining fair and achievable criteria with quantifiable targets for performance-related pay and competence pay.
• Avoiding over-secrecy about starting salaries, especially during organisational restructuring, to avoid divergence in equal pay.
• Carrying out equality impact assessments and periodic pay audits to ensure all policies and practices treat all genders equally.

In addition to the risk of owing significant back pay or damages following an equal pay claim, there is also the potential for significant reputational damage to the business – so the consequences of equal pay disputes can be far-reaching.

Bookkeeping for employers

More detailed guidance on equal pay is available to employers on the ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) website.

In addition to ensuring that your business is paying employees appropriately in terms of minimum wage entitlement, it’s also crucial to pay employees fairly without enabling gender-based discrimination.

If you need assistance updating your pay systems, you should speak to gbac about our bookkeeping and payroll services. Get in touch to discuss streamlining your accounting systems with our accountants in Barnsley.

Until now, the Companies House registry has passively received the information that UK companies filed – but new reforms will implement a more active role for Companies House as a regulator to better maintain the register’s integrity.

Since the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) was passed into law in October 2023, the changes in the Act will begin to take effect in 2024.

There are several new measures that aim to clamp down on financial crime and improve the reliability of corporate data, which should help to make it easier to do business in the UK and support economic growth.

So, if you have a registered company, limited liability partnership (LLP), or limited partnership (LP) in the UK, these measures will affect you from 4th March 2024.

Registered office address

The new rules for ‘appropriate’ registered office addresses mean that every company must register an address where a person acting on the company’s behalf can receive documents and acknowledge deliveries.

PO Box addresses are no longer permissible, so any company using a PO Box as their registered address must change this or risk being struck from the register. The address of a third-party agent may be an alternative option.

Registered email address

It will now be a requirement for companies to provide a registered email address to Companies House. New companies must do this when incorporating and existing companies when filing their next confirmation statements.

The email address will not be published publicly, but Companies House will use it for communications regarding the company. Failure to supply an email address will be considered an offence by the company directors and result in a fine.

Lawful purpose

When incorporating a new company, the shareholders must confirm they are doing so for a lawful purpose. All businesses on the Companies House register have a duty to operate lawfully and must specify this on every confirmation statement.

Annual confirmation statements for existing companies will also include a declaration of lawful present and future activities from this March. If Companies House discovers that a company is acting unlawfully, it can take legal action against them.

What does this mean for businesses?

These changes coming into effect from 4th March 2024
are only the first in a series of measures that will give Companies House more proactive powers, which are expected to also come into force later in the year and include:

• Identity verification for company officers
• Company name compliance checks
• Annotating registers to clarify information
• Sharing data with government agencies
• Prosecuting offences with financial penalties

Existing companies will, of course, be affected, but it’s particularly important for new companies to follow the latest rules when registering. The details of changes to UK company law can be found on the official website.

If you have any concerns about how these developments will affect your company and which steps you might need to take, you can consult our accountants in Barnsley for financial guidance and digital accounting support.

Call gbac on 01226 298 298 or email your queries to info@gbac.co.uk
for help complying with the latest regulations for company accounts.

The start of this year saw a media storm around rumours that HMRC would be cracking down on online sellers in 2024, spreading concern amongst people who sell personal items and secondhand goods on sites like eBay, Depop, and Vinted.

However, the stories about a new ‘side hustle’ tax were completely false, fuelling unnecessary panic for the public and unfounded outrage against HMRC.

Here’s what is actually happening with income tax for sellers on digital platforms.

Digital platforms reporting to HMRC

What HMRC is actually starting to do in 2024 is introduce rules by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) for digital platforms to automatically report seller details if their sales exceed a certain amount.

In a bid to reduce tax avoidance, digital platforms must pass on to HMRC the details of any sellers who make at least 30 sales on their platform or earn the equivalent of €2,000
within a calendar year. The first reports will therefore not go out until January 2025, covering the 2024 calendar year.

Neither the OECD nor HMRC has an interest in minor sellers of secondhand items, as the rules target actual traders – people who buy and sell with the intention of making a profit. Earning profit from trading has always been taxable income.

This OECD reporting measure could impact 2–5 million businesses who trade via digital platforms, but this impact should only be small, as they will also receive a copy of their reports to help them submit accurate tax returns.

Annual tax-free trading allowance

The misleading information about a ‘side hustle’ tax may also have been building on the revelation for some social media influencers and side-gig resellers that income from social media is also taxable, as many found out for the first time after receiving tax warning letters from HMRC last year.

HMRC began sending out these warning letters because many young people who use social media or online sales platforms to earn income – either full-time or as a ‘side hustle’ – didn’t realise that this economic activity is taxable.

HMRC has been raising awareness that there is actually an annual trading allowance of £1,000. This allows individuals to earn up to £1,000 (before expenses) tax-free each year, whether this is from selling old goods online or making sponsored online content.

A similar allowance of £1,000 before expenses applies for property income, which means that rental income earned through sites like Airbnb and booking.com also falls within this scope – and will also be subject to the OECD reporting regime.

Help with income tax management

Information on the advent of digital platform reporting rules is available on the government website. It’s important to acknowledge that HMRC’s insight into income sources is continually expanding, and to inform yourself of the latest changes from reliable sources to avoid falling for media misinformation.

If you are an online trader, then you should already be registered with HMRC and submitting annual tax returns if your income exceeds the £1,000
allowance. The requirements are different for registered traders than for individuals who casually sell personal goods they no longer use every now and then.

If you aren’t sure what your tax obligations are based on your online selling activity, or you need help getting your accounts in order and submitting tax returns, we have a team of accountants in Barnsley who can assist you.

Call gbac on 01226 298 298 or send an email to info@gbac.co.uk to get started.

While most people welcome increased income, it can be a double-edged sword, resulting in more than just a higher income tax
bill. With tax bands frozen for several years, higher rate taxpayers should be looking at which reliefs are still available to them.

The new tax year in April will bring reduced allowances and frozen thresholds, so it’s essential to check whether a pay rise will affect the reliefs you’re entitled to as well as the rate of income tax you’ll pay, so you can keep your personal finances in order.

Marriage Allowance

If they earn below the £12,570 threshold for the tax-free Personal Allowance, the Marriage Allowance lets the lower earner in a couple transfer up to £1,260 of their annual allowance to their higher-earning spouse or civil partner.

However, this only applies if the recipient spouse is a basic rate taxpayer. If an income increase pushes them over the frozen threshold for higher rate tax, it will no longer be available and the lower-earning partner must cancel their claim.

To avoid having to do this, the higher earner could make enough pension contributions to keep their income below the £50,270
upper threshold for basic rate tax.

Child Benefit

The government pays Child Benefit at a weekly rate to parents who claim for their eligible children, which is the same amount regardless of the parents’ income.

However, the government starts to claw this back through the High Income Child Benefit Charge if either parent begins to earn more than £50,000
a year. Every £100 over this loses 1% of the benefit, until it is completely lost at £60,000.

Parents have to submit an annual tax return declaring this in order to pay the HICBC, but plans are in motion to make it possible for employees to pay through PAYE.

Again, either parent whose pay rise may affect Child Benefit entitlement could use pension contributions to lower their taxable income and retain eligibility.

Childcare

To support parents getting back to work, the government provides free childcare for those working at least 16 hours a week and earning less than £100,000 a year.

Currently, 15–30 hours a week of free childcare is available for 3–4 year olds, with 15 hours a week for 2–3 year olds starting in April and for 9 month–2 year olds from September. The schemes may differ in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

If the parent claiming free childcare or their partner begins to earn more than £100,000 annually, they will no longer be eligible for tax-free childcare and must cancel it.

In this case, increasing pension contributions could once again help to keep their adjusted net income below the cutoff for free childcare support eligibility.

Savings tax trap

While basic rate taxpayers can earn up to £1,000 a year in tax-free savings interest, higher rate taxpayers can earn up to £500. Additional rate taxpayers have no savings interest allowance, as this is lost once annual income exceeds £125,140.

Even if the amount of savings doesn’t change, the tax on its interest could therefore increase if a basic rate taxpayer is pushed over the frozen higher rate threshold due to earning or receiving more income.

Aside from pension contributions, investing in an Individual Savings Account (ISA) can also help to mitigate this, as ISAs allow tax-free savings of up to £20,000 a year.

Tax, pensions, and savings advice

If you’re at risk of losing tax allowances and reliefs due to increasing income in the coming tax year, it could be worth looking into personal pension contributions.

The government website has more information about tax relief for private pensions, as making private contributions can be a tax-efficient way for higher earners to preserve their entitlement to the Marriage Allowance, Child Benefit, and free childcare.

For professional advice on managing personal tax liabilities and reliefs, why not get help from accountants in Barnsley? The team at gbac can provide a range of efficient financial services, so get in touch to find out more.

Under the government’s original plans, anyone required to submit Income Tax Self-Assessment returns to HMRC would have been obligated to sign up for the Making Tax Digital (MTD) service by April 2024 – but the implementation of MTD for ITSA has since been delayed until April 2026.

Switching to the online tax service will initially be mandatory for landlords and self-employed earners with income over £50,000
a year, while those with annual income below this but above £30,000 will be required to join from April 2027.

Before setting a deadline for extending MTD to smaller businesses earning less than £30,000 a year, the government conducted a review to consider how this might affect the needs of small businesses.

The outcome of the MTD small business review is the announcement that there are no plans to extend MTD for ITSA to landlords and the self-employed earning below £30,000 a year for the foreseeable future – though this may be reviewed again.

Here’s a short guide explaining what self-employed workers and landlords should know about current changes to MTD for ITSA.

How MTD for ITSA works

Making Tax Digital is the official campaign moving small businesses and self-employed individuals over to the government’s new online tax system, scrapping paper tax returns to improve efficiency and reduce tax fraud.

This involves registering for the MTD service when requested, depending on the type of earnings, economic activity, and specific taxes that apply. HMRC has been rolling out its implementation gradually to give people to adjust to these changes.

Once registered and mandated to use the service, businesses and individuals must submit the requested financial information and updates using MTD-compatible software instead of submitting an annual tax return online or by post.

Quarterly updates with accurate income reports will allow taxpayers to estimate the tax bill they’ll have to pay at the end of the year, so they can budget in advance.

A date has still not been set for general partnerships (with individuals), non-general partnerships (with corporate partners), or limited liability partnerships (LLPs) to join.

Changes to reporting income

Some changes to the obligations for reporting income under MTD for ITSA were also announced in the executive summary of the Autumn Statement 2023.

Instead of requiring an end-of-period declaration and a separate final declaration for year-end reporting, there will now be one final declaration. Removing the end-of-period statement should reduce confusion and administrative burdens.

Quarterly reports will also now be cumulative, so each update will include information from previous quarters to build a full summary of the year’s income and expenditure to date. Businesses can correct previous details with each report instead of resubmitting.

Additionally, landlords who jointly own property can maintain less detailed records for these properties to simplify transferring digital records between owners, and are free to not submit quarterly expense updates for jointly owned properties if they choose.

However, records for jointly owned properties must still be submitted before landlords can finalise their reports and tax positions at the end of the year.

Concerns about MTD for ITSA

Despite the government’s efforts to make the MTD process simpler for everyone who will have to use it, many people are still concerned that HMRC has lost sight of taxpayer needs – as shown by its design flaws, missed deadlines, and spiralling costs.

HMRC has shared an online guide to MTD for ITSA explaining when to sign up and how to use it. Even if you don’t qualify for mandated registration, you may still be able to register voluntarily to help HMRC with testing and developing it.

It’s important to note that the threshold limits of £50,000
and £30,000 apply to total income from self-employment and property, not profit.

If you are a landlord or self-employed and affected by the MTD for ITSA requirements, or other regulatory changes such as basis period reforms, you may want to get assistance from professional accountants to update your accounting processes.

At gbac, we have a team of trained accountants in Barnsley who can help with setting up cloud accounting software and making tax management more efficient.

To discuss how we could help you or your business, get in touch with our team by calling 01226 298 298 or emailing info@gbac.co.uk.

From Property Alerts for fraud prevention, to energy efficiency requirements for rented properties, to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax delays – it’s essential for landlords to keep up with the latest regulatory changes.

For example, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill
was introduced in Parliament last November and is likely to be passed into law in mid-2024.

Also in November, the National Trading Standards Estate and Lettings Agency Team (NTSELAT) published two more sections of guidance for sales agents and letting agents regarding ‘material information’ in property listings.

Here’s what these changes could mean for landlords when it comes to advertising a property or extending a lease in 2024.

Extending a lease

Presently, if you have a leasehold property, then you own the property itself, but not the land it’s sitting on – so you have to pay ground rent to the freeholder.

The Reform Bill will do away with this type of homeownership by making every home freehold from the outset. Anyone buying a property will own both the land and the building, and leaseholders will no longer need to own their property for at least 2 years to be able to buy their freehold.

When it comes to extending leases, the current term is 90 years for apartments and flats, but the government intends to increase the standard extension term to 990 years for both flats and houses, with zero ground rent.

Other changes include reducing ground rent to virtually free (peppercorn) upon a premium payment, and removing ‘marriage value’ (which reflects the increased market value of an extended lease).

A leasehold property could have an initial lease term of just 99 years, which may seem fine to a new landlord, but letting a lease run down to less than 80 years could make it costlier to extend and potentially harder to sell or remortgage the property.

Advertising property

After publishing Part A of its guidance on which information to include in property listings in 2022, the NTSELAT published Parts B
and C at the end of 2023.

These extended guidelines set out the ‘material information’ that anyone listing a property for rent, lease, or sale will be obligated to include. Providing accurate details about relevant features will allow potential tenants or buyers to make properly informed transactional decisions.

This includes specifics beyond the asking price or rent, deposits, and council tax rates required in Part A. Most landlords and agents may already include the bulk of this mandatory information, but those letting privately might overlook some items.

Part B states that all property listings should include information about the:

• Property type (e.g. semi-detached house or flat)
• Property construction and building materials
• Number of rooms and type of each room
• Utilities (electricity, water, sewerage, heating, broadband, mobile signal)
• Available parking for the property

Under Part C, the following must be included if it’s relevant to the property:

• Accessible facilities/accessibility adaptations
• Building safety information
• Restrictive covenants, rights, or easements
• Planning permissions or developments
• Flood or coastal erosion risks
• Coalfield or mining issues

If known, these details should be provided through the property advertising portals at the earliest opportunity, whether it’s a private let or through an agent.

This will help both tenants and landlords, who can avoid wasting time and money on fall-throughs, because all the necessary information is available from the start.

Listings should follow this new guidance as early as possible, with property portals expected to enforce these rules by the end of 2024.

Financial management for landlords

If you are a landlord, it’s important to make sure you are complying with current regulations, while streamlining your operating costs wherever possible.

From tax planning for property and income tax to managing Service Charge Accounts for residential or commercial buildings, all kinds of landlords can benefit from professional accounting services to help them do just that.

With the team at gbac, you can enjoy improved financial organisation and peace of mind, thanks to landlord services provided by our accountants in Barnsley.

To discover more about what we can do for landlords, call gbac on 01226 298 298, or email an enquiry to info@gbac.co.uk and we will respond as soon as possible.

Following announcements made in the Autumn Statement 2023, new rules will come into effect for individual savings accounts (ISAs)
from April this year.

Since launching in 1999, ISAs have offered an excellent route for building up tax-free savings, with different options and regulations introduced over the years.

Allowing savers to set aside ad-hoc sums up to an annual allowance, sheltered from income tax and capital gains tax, it’s no wonder that ISAs are so popular.

Now, changes coming into effect on 6th April 2024 to make ISAs more user-friendly will also make them even more attractive to more people hoping to build their savings – but there are some limitations to be aware of.

Multiple ISA subscriptions

Currently, it’s only possible to subscribe to one of each type of ISA per tax year, but subscribing to multiple ISAs of the same type with different providers will now be allowed – offering much greater flexibility than before.

Savers can pick and choose easy-access or fixed-rate Cash ISAs to suit their needs, and investors can spread investments over several providers. However, all ISA
subscriptions are included in the annual allowance of £20,000.

Partial ISA transfers

The current all-or-nothing approach to ISA transfers
is that the entire ISA must be transferred if you want to move it to another provider during the tax year. However, the new rules will allow partial transfers between providers.

Savers will be able to transfer any amount they like from one ISA manager to another without having to transfer the entire subscription. For example, if you paid in £10,000, you could move £5,000
to another provider without an issue.

No need to reapply

At present, an ISA account that’s seen as ‘dormant’ – with nothing paid in during the previous tax year – will require reapplication. Effectively, if you don’t pay into your ISA for a year, you have to apply for it again to restart payments.

As an administrative hassle, the government has decided to scrap this requirement. So, if you made no contributions to your existing ISA
in the previous tax year, you won’t need to reapply to resume contributions, reducing confusion.

Fractional shares

Though it isn’t concrete yet, the government intends to make it possible to hold fractional shares within a Stocks & Shares ISA. Currently, investors must hold a full share, even though some shares can cost hundreds of pounds.

This will allow investors who would have been priced out of shares to hold fractional investments in an ISA, making it easier for more people to invest in shares. The government should announce more details after running consultations.

Frozen ISA allowances

The maximum tax-free amount that you can save in ISAs
each year – the annual ISA allowance – unfortunately will not be increased this year. This means it will stay frozen at £20,000 for Adult ISAs and £9,000 for Junior ISAs.

This allowance can be split across multiple types of ISAs, such as a Cash ISA, Lifetime ISA, Innovative Finance ISA, or Stocks & Shares ISA. However, you must make sure the total across all accounts doesn’t exceed the allowance.

Cash ISA age limit

In line with other ISAs for adults, the age limit for opening a Cash ISA will be set at 18 years old from April 2024. After this, 16–17 year olds will only be eligible for Junior ISAs, and limited to a lower allowance of £9,000 a year.

Under-18s (or their parents) may want to open a Cash ISA
before 5th April if they want to benefit from the adult allowance in addition to being eligible for a Junior ISA – a ‘loophole’ that offers a combined allowance of £29,000.

ISAs and tax planning

Though it hasn’t been updated yet, HMRC has an online guide to ISAs
for 2023–2024.

As the current tax year draws to a close and the ISA
reforms approach, there’s no better time to re-assess your financial strategies for the coming tax year – ensuring you make informed decisions for tax-efficient saving.

Of course, ISA regulations can change at any time, and it can be difficult to choose the right savings option for your personal circumstances.

If you need help with financial planning for your future, including tax planning, it’s a good idea to get professional advice from qualified accountants, who can help you to manage your savings portfolio.

The skilled accountants in Barnsley at gbac would be happy to assist you with savings and tax advice – call 01226 298 298 or email info@gbac.co.uk to find out more.

Last November, the measures announced in the Autumn Statement 2023 included some extensions and some cuts to business rates relief for the 2024–2025 tax year.

While the business rates burden may be alleviated for some businesses in England and the Scottish islands, businesses in Wales sadly will not be as fortunate.

Here are the latest figures for business rates relief
and multipliers from 1st April 2024.

Business rates discounts

Business properties in the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors that are not eligible for small business rates relief may qualify for a 75% discount, which was available in 2023 and will be continuing in 2024.

With a cap of £110,000 per business, this discount is typically available from local councils for business properties that are primarily used as shops, restaurants (including cafés, bars, or pubs), cinemas, music venues, hotels, gyms, or spas.

Welsh retail properties have an equivalent scheme, but the discount will drop to 40% for 2024. There is no equivalent scheme for business properties in Scotland or Northern Ireland, but hospitality businesses on the Scottish Islands will get 100% relief.

Business rates multipliers

To calculate a business rates bill, the property’s rateable value (RV) is multiplied by a multiplier that may reflect the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The small business multiplier, which applies to properties with an RV below £51,000, will continue to be frozen at 49.9p in 2024, as it was in 2023.

However, the standard multiplier, which applies to properties with RVs over £51,000, is going to increase by 6.7%
– reaching 54.6p for 2024–2025.

These multipliers apply in England. In Wales, the regular multiplier is increasing by 5% to 56.2p, while there have been no announcements yet for Northern Ireland.

In Scotland, properties with RVs up to £50,000 will be subject to a multiplier of 49.8p, RVs between £51,001–£100,000
to 54.5p, and RVs above £100,000 to 55.9p.

Help with business rates relief

With inflation at around 4% and expected to fall throughout 2024, the increased multipliers are unlikely to be welcome news for businesses in England and Wales – though the frozen multiplier for small businesses and continued retail discount is sure to benefit many businesses in England.

Detailed information about business rates in England and the types of business rates relief
is available on the government website.

If you are concerned about the impact of business rates
on your small to medium business, have you considered speaking with tax consultants?

At gbac, our accountants in Barnsley and Leeds can help businesses across the UK to improve their financial management and benefit from efficient tax reliefs. Call 01226 298 298 or email info@gbac.co.uk to discuss our services.