Rates in the United Kingdom

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Rates are a tax on property in the United Kingdom used to fund local government. Business rates are collected throughout the United Kingdom. Domestic rates are collected in Northern Ireland and were collected in England and Wales before 1990 and in Scotland before 1989.

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Rates are usually paid by the occupier of a property, and only in the case of unoccupied property does the owner become liable to pay them.

Domestic rates

England and Wales

Rates formally became universal by the Poor Relief Act 1601; this removed all doubt that parishes (vestries) should and could levy a poor rate to fund the Poor Law. They often levied these earlier to fund poor law relief. Indeed, the Court of Appeal in 2001 said "The law of rating is statutory and ancient, going back even before the Poor Relief Act 1601". [1]

As local government developed, separate rates were collected by parish authorities, borough corporations and county authorities. The County Rates Act 1739 ended the practice of separate rates being levied for individual purposes, such a highway rate and provided for a unified county rate.

Rates on residential property were based on the nominal rental value, reassessed periodically in revaluations. By the Rating and Valuation Act 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 90), revaluations were supposed to take place every five years but in practice they were frequently delayed or suspended. Revaluations took place in 1928/1929, 1934, 1956 (but based on 1939 values), 1963, and 1973. [2] A revaluation due in the early 1980s was scrapped by the Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Heseltine in June 1979, with Heseltine urging householders to tear up the forms already sent out by the Valuation Office. [3]

Rates in England and Wales in 1990 were briefly replaced with the Community Charge (so called "poll tax"), a fixed tax per head that was the same for everyone within a council area, a figure that could differ greatly per local authority. This was soon replaced with the Council Tax, a system based on the estimated market value of property assessed in bands of value, with a discount for people living alone.

Northern Ireland

Domestic rates are the current local government taxation in Northern Ireland. Domestic rates consist of two components, the Regional rate set by the Northern Ireland Assembly and the District rate set by 11 district councils. Rate levels are set annually. The domestic rates are based on the capital value of the residential property on 1 January 2005. Valuation and rating of property is handled by Land and Property Services. Domestic rates are now unique to Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.

Scotland

As in England, the individual domestic rates bill was calculated by multiplying the rateable valuation of a property by the domestic poundage rate set by the local Council. Before the 1996 reform of local government, domestic rates were set by Regional Councils, and prior to the 1975 reorganisation, rates were set by County Councils.

The rateable value of domestic properties was recorded in valuation rolls, which provide an important historical source, as they record the name of the head of the household for every home in Scotland on set years; usually at five yearly intervals. [4] All transfers of property ownership in Scotland are recorded in the Register of Sasines or the Scottish Land Registry. [5]

Domestic rates were a more stable income source for local government as they are based entirely on property values which provide greater financial certainty to councils - reducing their cost of borrowing. Evasion of domestic rates was also more difficult in Scotland than in England as property ownership in Scotland can be more easily proven as Scots law has required public registration for a transfer of property to be effective since 1694, [6] whereas HM Land Registry is incomplete [7] and a compulsory public declaration is a more recent requirement. Council Tax is slightly easier to evade than domestic rates as liability for Council Tax falls on the occupants rather than the property owner - the UK does not have a complete identity register therefore Councils must rely on other forms of identification - such as the electoral roll to identify, locate and pursue Council Tax evaders.

Rates were abolished in Scotland in 1989 and replaced with the Community Charge which was in turn replaced by the Council Tax as in England and Wales. Since devolution, there have been attempts to replace Council Tax in Scotland with a Local income tax and a Land Value Tax.

Business rates

Rates on non-residential property (business rates) are still charged, at a uniform rate set by central government. Rates are collected by local councils, and were, until recently[ when? ], distributed nationally. Each local authority now keeps the money they collect meaning that some local authorities collect a disproportionate amount when compared to number of residents.

Rating assessments (rateable values) are made on all non-domestic properties. As well as business, this includes village halls and other non-business occupations. The exception to this is where a hereditament is exempt by virtue of Schedule 6 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 which specifies exempt classes.

The rateable value should represent the reasonable rental value of the occupation according to the circumstances at the "Material Day" and according to rental values at the "Antecedent Valuation Date". (For the compiled 2005 Rating List the "Material Day" is 1 April 2005 and the "Antecedent Valuation Date" is 1 April 2003).

Later physical changes will have a later Material Day but the Antecedent Valuation Date will still be 1 April 2003 for the currency of the 2005 Rating List. The Rating List is a public document.

From April 2023, retailers will receive temporary support from the government with business rates with a 75% discount on business rates up to a limit of £110,000 per business, following shop closures reaching a 5 year high. [8]

Other rates

Taxes raised for other purposes are also called rates in the United Kingdom.

In Halsall v Brizell the defendant could, at least in theory, choose between enjoying the right and paying his proportion of the cost or alternatively giving up the right and saving his money. In the present case the owners of Walford House could not in theory or in practice be deprived of the benefit of the mutual rights of support if they failed to repair the roof.

Thus someone with property above or below a freehold (for example) may struggle to oblige that freehold's owner to carry out their moral obligations, without a prior deed of rentcharge or enduring chain of deed of covenants, due to the high value placed on privity of contract and privity of estate as these together benefit otherwise burdened freeholds.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poll tax (Great Britain)</span> Controversial system of taxation in the UK from 1989 to 1993

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Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government. Some other countries have taxes with a more or less comparable role, like France's taxe d'habitation.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business rates in England</span> English tax

Business rates in England, or non-domestic rates, are a tax on the occupation of non-domestic property. Rates are a property tax with ancient roots that was formerly used to fund local services that was formalised with the Vagabonds Act 1572 and superseded by the Poor Relief Act 1601. The Local Government Finance Act 1988 introduced business rates in England and Wales from 1990, repealing its immediate predecessor, the General Rate Act 1967. The act also introduced business rates in Scotland but as an amendment to the existing system, which had evolved separately to that in the rest of Great Britain. Since the establishment in 1997 of a Welsh Assembly able to pass legislation, the English and Welsh systems have been able to diverge. In 2015, business rates for Wales were devolved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business rates in Scotland</span>

Business rates is the commonly used name of Non-Domestic Rates in Scotland, a tax on occupation of non-domestic property. Rates are a property tax used to fund local services that dates back to the Poor Law.

The Lyons Inquiry was an independent inquiry into the form, function and funding of local government in England. Appointed jointly by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Deputy Prime Minister in the summer of 2004, Sir Michael Lyons produced several reports over the next 3 years, culminating in a final report on the future of local government published alongside the Chancellor's Budget in March 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Property tax in the United States</span>

Most local governments in the United States impose a property tax, also known as a millage rate, as a principal source of revenue. This tax may be imposed on real estate or personal property. The tax is nearly always computed as the fair market value of the property, multiplied by an assessment ratio, multiplied by a tax rate, and is generally an obligation of the owner of the property. Values are determined by local officials, and may be disputed by property owners. For the taxing authority, one advantage of the property tax over the sales tax or income tax is that the revenue always equals the tax levy, unlike the other types of taxes. The property tax typically produces the required revenue for municipalities' tax levies. One disadvantage to the taxpayer is that the tax liability is fixed, while the taxpayer's income is not.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domestic rates in Northern Ireland</span>

Domestic rates are the local government taxation in Northern Ireland. Rates are a tax on property based on the capital value of the residential property on 1 January 2005. Domestic rates consist of two components, a regional rate set by the Northern Ireland Assembly and a district rate set by local councils. Rate levels are set annually. Valuation and rating of property is handled by Land and Property Services. Domestic rates are unique to Northern Ireland, in the rest of the United Kingdom the local taxation is Council Tax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land Tax (England)</span> A land value tax (1689 to 1963)

The Land Tax was a land value tax levied in England from 1692 to 1963, though such taxes predate the best-known 1692 Act. It was abolished by the Finance Act 1963. Taxes on land date back to the Norman Conquest and beyond, and the Land Tax introduced in 1692 was a natural successor to taxation acts in 1671 and 1689, but the 1692 act "has been regarded as a turning point in the history of English revenue collection. It was from this Act that contemporaries and historians alike date what has come to be known as the eighteenth-century Land Tax". The land tax elements of the 1671, 1689 and 1692 Acts were limited to one year but the 1798 Act made the tax perpetual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Local Government (Rating) Act 2002</span> Act of Parliament in New Zealand

The Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 of New Zealand is an Act of New Zealand's Parliament that empowers Local Government bodies to levy property taxes on property owners within their jurisdictions. These property taxes are called rates. They are assessed annually and usually paid in four equal instalments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Council Tax in Scotland</span>

Council Tax in Scotland is a tax on domestic property which was introduced across Scotland in 1993, along with England and Wales, following passage of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. It replaced the Community Charge. Each property is assigned one of eight bands based on property value, and the tax is set as a fixed amount for each band. Some properties are exempt from the tax, some people are exempt from the tax, while some get a discount.

References

  1. RF Williams v Scottish & Newcastle Retail Ltd (Valuation Officer) 15 Feb 2001 [2001] EWCA Civ 185, CA
  2. "Rates and valuations guide | the Royal Berkshire Archives".
  3. Alan Day, "Heseltine's hassle over the Rates", The Observer, 1 July 1979, p. 10.
  4. See National Records of Scotland
  5. "Scotland Land Registry Searches - What are the Land Register and the Sasine Register".
  6. "Registration Act 1617".
  7. "Searching for the owner of unregistered land - HM Land Registry". 5 February 2018.
  8. "Retail: Last year saw a big jump in the number of shops closing". BBC News. 2023-01-02. Retrieved 2023-01-02.
  9. Dobson, Alban; Hull, Hubert (1931). The Land Drainage Act 1930. Oxford University Press. pp. ix–xiii.
  10. "Drainage Rate". Lindsey Marsh Drainage Board. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  11. [1994] UKHL 3, [1994] 2 AC 310