Business rates in Scotland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)


Scotland
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Scotland

Scottish Government
First Minister: Alex Salmond Deputy First Minister: Nicola Sturgeon Cabinet Crown Office Lord Advocate: Elish Angiolini Executive agencies Public bodies
Scottish Parliament
Acts Presiding Officer: Alex Fergusson Scottish Parliament Building Members (MSPs) : 1999, 2003, 2007 Constituencies and electoral regions Elections: 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 Legislative Consent Motion
Scotland in the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Government Secretary of State: Des Browne Scotland Office Reserved matters Advocate General: Neil Davidson Parliament of the United Kingdom Constituencies Grand Committee Select Committee Elections: 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009/10 Lists of Scottish MPs
Legal system Scots law Supreme courts
European Parliament European Parliament constituency Elections: 2004, 2009 Local government Subdivisions of Scotland Convention of Scottish Local Authorities Political parties Scottish independence Unionism in Scotland
Other countries · Atlas Politics Portal view • talk • edit

Taxation in the United Kingdom

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
the United Kingdom

Central government

HM Treasury
HM Revenue and Customs

Income tax · PAYE
VAT · National Insurance
Corporation tax
Inheritance tax · Stamp duty
Capital gains tax · Excise tax
Motoring taxes

Local government

Council Tax
Rates · Business rates

Taxation by country

Tax rates around the world
Tax revenue as % of GDP

view • talk • edit • project

Business rates is the commonly used name of rates in Scotland, a tax on occupation of non-domestic property. Rates are a property tax used to fund local services that dates back to the Poor Law.

1 History
2 Scope
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

The Poor Law introduced in Scotland in 1579 provided for a poor rate to be levied to fund poor relief. The Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845 modernised the system, and the Lands Valuation (Scotland) Act 1854 established the foundations of the modern system.

The Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 1956 established a system of five-yearly revaluations, undertaken by an Assessor appointed by the local authority.

In 1989, domestic properties were removed from the rating system with the introduction of the Community Charge in Scotland, later to be replaced with Council Tax.

[edit] Scope

The Local Government Finance Act 1988 amended the existing rating system in Scotland from 1990 at the same time as introducing a new system of business rates in England and Wales from 1990, and the Local Government Finance Act 1992 made further changes. While the latter two acts applied to the whole of the United Kingdom, as the Scottish system is based on Scots law, it remains fundamentally different from the system in England and Wales.