England only. Business rates are devolved, so Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run different multipliers and relief schemes — see mygov.scot, gov.wales or nibusinessinfo.co.uk.
This is the standard calculation your council starts from, but a real bill can differ. The big one this year is transitional relief: because rateable values were reassessed on 1 April 2026, properties facing a large increase have the rise phased in over several years, so your actual bill may be lower than the figure above. There are also reliefs this tool doesn't model — rural rate relief, charitable relief at 80%, empty property relief, hardship relief, and the Supporting Small Business scheme for anyone losing small business rate relief because of the revaluation. Councils also hold discretionary powers of their own. If the number above looks unaffordable, two things are worth doing before anything else: check the rateable value itself on the VOA service, since you can challenge it if the floor area or description is wrong, and ring the council's business rates team, who will usually tell you exactly which reliefs you're being awarded.
Business rates are the commercial equivalent of council tax, charged on shops, offices, pubs, warehouses and most other non-domestic property. The bill starts from your rateable value — the Valuation Office Agency's estimate of what the property would rent for on the open market — multiplied by a figure set annually in pence, called the multiplier. All rateable values in England and Wales were reassessed on 1 April 2026, based on rental values as at April 2024, which is why a lot of bills moved this year even though nothing about the premises changed.
From April 2026 England moved from two multipliers to five. Retail, hospitality and leisure properties now have permanently lower multipliers — 38.2p below £51,000 of rateable value and 43.0p up to £499,999 — replacing the temporary RHL relief that ran until 2025/26. Everything else pays 43.2p or 48.0p on the same thresholds, and any property with a rateable value of £500,000 or more pays the new high-value multiplier of 50.8p. This business rates calculator applies the right multiplier for your property, then works out small business rate relief: 100% below £12,000 of rateable value, tapering to nothing at £15,000, for occupiers of a single property. Figures are for England, 2026/27.
Usually not. If you use a room for work but the property is still mainly a home, council tax covers it. You can be brought into business rates on the part you use commercially if you've adapted a room specifically for the business, sell goods to customers from the property, or employ people there — a converted outbuilding used as a workshop is the classic case. The VOA decides, and it looks at how the space is actually used rather than what you call it.
You've lost small business rate relief entirely, though you still get the lower multiplier up to £50,999, and if the jump came from the 2026 revaluation the Supporting Small Business scheme caps how fast the increase hits. It's also worth checking the valuation itself on the VOA service: the floor area, the description of the property and the rental evidence used are all visible, and a genuine error is grounds for a formal Check and Challenge.
Whoever occupies the property is liable, so on a normal commercial lease that's you, billed directly by the council. There are exceptions: serviced offices and some managed workspaces roll rates into an all-inclusive monthly fee, and on short licences the landlord often stays liable. Check which arrangement applies before you sign, because a rates bill on top of the rent you budgeted for is a large and unwelcome surprise.