Estimate your business rates

How you estimate your business rates depends on where your property is.

England or Wales

  1. Find the rateable value of your business. This is an estimate of its open market rental value on 1 April 2015.

  2. Check the table to find out which ‘multiplier’ to use. Use the standard multiplier if your rateable value is £51,000 or more. Use the small business multiplier if your rateable value is below £51,000.

  3. Multiply your rateable value by your multiplier. This shows you how much you will have to pay in business rates (before any relief is deducted).

  4. Take away any business rate relief that you’re entitled to. If your business rates are increasing as a result of the 2017 revaluation, this may include transitional relief so that changes to your bill are phased in gradually.

Year Standard multiplier Small business multiplier
2018 to 2019 49.3p 48.0p
2017 to 2018 47.9p 46.6p
2016 to 2017 49.7p 48.4p

Before 2017 to 2018, use the small business multiplier if your rateable value is below £18,000 (£25,500 in Greater London).

There are different multipliers in Wales and the City of London.

Example

Barbara has a business in England. 
The rateable value of her business is £10,000, so she uses the 2018 to 2019 small business multiplier (48.0p) to estimate her business rates as follows:

£10,000 (rateable value) x £0.48p (multiplier) = £4,800 (basic business rates)

As her rateable value is less than £15,000, she may be able to reduce her bill by applying for small business rate relief.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

There’s a different way to calculate business rates in Scotland and Northern Ireland.