Help available for business rates

The Small Business Rate Relief for small Post Offices is a Northern Ireland government initiative that includes enhanced rate relief for small Post Offices. The aim of the rate relief scheme is to help maintain services in disadvantaged areas, particularly smaller, independent Post Offices.

Who qualifies?

Eligibility for the Small Business Rate Relief is based on the Net Annual Value (NAV) of your Post Office.

There are three levels of Small Business Rate Relief for Post Offices:

• Post Offices with a NAV of £9,000 or less will be awarded 100% relief
• Post Offices with a NAV of more than £9,000 but not more than £12,000 will receive 50% relief
• Post Offices with a NAV of more than £12,000 but not more than £15,000 will receive 20% relief

The Small Business Rate Relief for small Post Offices came into effect on 1 April 2010, initially for a term of five years, but has since been extended annually on review.

Do I need to apply?

There is no application procedure for the Small Business Rate Relief for small Post Offices. Instead, relief will be applied automatically to your business rates bill by Land & Property Services (LPS) if your Post Office qualifies. This will ensure that if you are eligible you will receive the benefit of the rate relief immediately.

Download the LPS factsheet on Small Business Rate Relief for Small Post Offices (PDF, 145K).

There may be occasions, due to data quality issues, when LPS may not have the relevant information to apply the rate relief automatically, or they may have awarded it when it is not due. If you think that you should have been awarded the rate relief, or you believe you have been awarded it in error, you should contact LPS. You can contact LPS by using the following methods:

• Email applicationbased.raterelief@finance-ni.gov.uk
• Tel 0300 200 7801 (charged at local rate)
• Tel +44 28 9049 5794 if calling from outside the UK
• Text relay 18001 0300 200 7801