The Department of Finance will start work on a Non-Domestic Rates Revaluation exercise with a view to preparing a new Valuation List for use from April 2020.
Land & Property Services (LPS) will revalue all non-domestic, mainly business properties in Northern Ireland for rates and the new values will be used to calculate future individual rate bills for businesses and organisations. This exercise will ensure that the rating system is more up to date, better reflecting local economic changes and making the system fairer.
For a project of this scale and complexity, a two and a half year lead in time is required by LPS to revalue over 75,000 non-domestic properties.
Regular business revaluations were supported in last year’s consultation exercise and this will ensure that the rating system remains closely aligned to market values for business ratepayers and that the new revaluation is completed within a five year period. This is an exercise in redistribution and revaluation and in itself does not raise more money for public finances. The last revaluation of non-domestic properties in Northern Ireland was in 2015 and was based on April 2013 rental values.
Notes to editors:
1.The Review of the NI Non-Domestic Rating System is available at - https://www.finance- ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/consultations/dfp/Review%20of%20NI%20Non-Domestic%20Rating%20System.pdf
2.Business rates are a long established local property tax levied on all non-domestic ratepayers, proportionate to the individual rental value of each property. It is necessary, therefore, to revalue periodically the entire stock of non-domestic property. Non-domestic properties will be contacted by Land & Property Services in 2018 to ascertain the rental values of properties.
3.There are around 75,000 non-domestic properties in Northern Ireland. Non-domestic rates currently contribute around £610 million a year towards regional services (roads, hospitals, schools, etc) and local services provided by councils.
4.For more information visit www.finance-ni.gov.uk/reval-2020-ni
5.Media enquiries should be addressed to the Department of Finance Press Office on Tel: 028 9081 6724 or email dof.pressoffice@finance-ni.gov.uk. Out of Office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07623 974383 and your call will be returned.
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