Amazon business rate bill causing headlines for wrong reasons

Thanks to a series of Parliamentary questions Amazon has confirmed it pays business rates of £63.4m – almost £40m less than Next, despite netting more than double the UK sales of the FTSE retailer. Cue... Continue reading

When naming and shaming is the only redress left

By Stuart Hicks, Director. A new year maybe but old habits die hard with a string of foreign embassies owing the taxman more than £1.5million of unpaid business rates. Diplomatic representatives from foreign countries are... Continue reading

Supreme Court settles business rates’ case caused by diligent receptionist

Another long-standing business rates’ saga has finally come to its conclusion in the Supreme Court in the case of UKI (Kingsway) Limited v Westminster City Council. This case dates back to 2012 and, believe it... Continue reading

The Smiler ride – not so funny outcome for Park owners after Appeal decision

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has delivered its judgement in a case involving the “Smiler” ride at Alton Towers. In Merlin Entertainments Group Ltd v Wayne Cox (VO) [2018] UKUT 0406 (LC) the Tribunal considered... Continue reading

Local Authorities business rate receipts 2017/18 up £300m

Local authorities have reported that business rate income for 2017-18 amounted to £23.8 billion – up £300m on 2016-17 receipts. This amount is what authorities collected after all reliefs, accounting adjustments and sums retained outside... Continue reading

BREAKING NEWS: Court of Appeal Business Rates’ ATM ruling

Hot off the press – the Court of Appeal has ruled that ATMs in supermarkets and shops should not be shown separately in the rating list and be subject to separate non-domestic rates charges. The... Continue reading