The VOA’s decision to petition the Supreme Court for the right to appeal against a court ruling blocking its proposals to introduce additional business rates on ATMs in retail stores is hugely disappointing.
With the dust settling on the Budget, we can reflect on the chancellor’s business rates announcements. I found it surprising to hear the warm plaudits the chancellor received, given how very little he delivered.
I’ll be honest. I hadn’t expected the government to fully reverse the effects of the UK Supreme Court’s (UKSC) decision in Woolway v Mazars (2015) UKSC 53, which was dubbed ‘the staircase tax’ by the media.
A year and a half after the government concluded its review of the English business rates system and six months since the 2017 revaluation, one would have expected the media’s unprecedented focus on this opaque tax to have died down. Not a bit of it.
Many of us will have had the rare but welcome pleasure of receiving a tax refund from HM Revenue & Customs when audits uncover errors in how tax bills were calculated.
Reducing the number of appeals against business rate assessments has long been a stated government aim, and the end of October saw the publication of its latest proposals.
One of the chancellor’s flagship business rates measures in last December’s Autumn Statement was quietly dropped a fortnight ago. T
Businesses have until 6 June to respond to the government’s review of business rates administration announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
Check and challenge valuation regime before 3 March
Next week’s Autumn Statement presents chancellor George Osborne with an opportunity to demonstrate the seriousness the government places on the cacophony of complaints around the business rates system.
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