Business rates are worked out from the rateable value of your premises, set by the Valuation Office Agency, multiplied by a figure the government sets each year. Then reliefs come off. For a lot of small businesses the reliefs matter far more than the multiplier.
The 2026/27 multipliers, England
There are two. If your rateable value is below £51,000 you use the small business multiplier of <strong>43.2p</strong>. At £51,000 or above you use the standard multiplier of <strong>48p</strong>. So a £50,000 rateable value and a £52,000 one are not two per cent apart on the bill — they are on different multipliers.
Small business rate relief
If the property is the only one your business uses and its rateable value is £12,000 or less, you pay nothing at all. Between £12,001 and £15,000 relief tapers from 100% down to zero — so at £13,500 you get roughly half off, and at £14,000 about a third.
The taper is the reason a small increase in rateable value can cost far more than it looks. Going from £12,000 to £13,500 does not add a little to your bill; it moves you from nothing to a real one.
Worth checking rather than assuming
Relief normally requires that you use only one property, but there are exceptions once you take on a second, including a grace period on the main property. Plenty of businesses that would qualify never claim, because they assume a second small unit rules them out.
You can also challenge a rateable value you believe is wrong, through the VOA's check, challenge and appeal process. It is slow, and it is occasionally worth a great deal.
Common questions
What is a rateable value, and who sets it?
It is the Valuation Office Agency's estimate of the annual rent your property would let for on the open market at a set valuation date. It is not what you actually pay in rent, and it is not the property's value. Because it is assessed centrally rather than negotiated, two similar units on the same street can carry noticeably different rateable values, which is one of the reasons the challenge process exists.
Do I pay business rates if I work from home?
Usually not. Working from home in a room that is also used domestically does not normally create a rates liability. It can change if part of the property is used exclusively for business, has been adapted for it, or if customers visit — a converted outbuilding used solely as a workshop being the classic example. If in doubt the VOA can advise, and it is better to ask than to be assessed retrospectively.
Are the rules the same across the UK?
No. This calculator covers England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each set their own poundage rates and run their own relief schemes, with different thresholds and different names for broadly similar things. If you trade in more than one nation you are dealing with more than one system, and the figures do not carry across.