By Debbie Franklin, Director of Tax and property tax specialist
From April 2023, new eligibility rules for business rates will apply to self-catering properties in England and Wales. If you don't meet these rules, your property will become eligible for paying Council Tax. The rules will be used in assessments from 1 April 2023. Information about lettings during the 2022/23 operating year will be used to determine whether a property is eligible.
The new eligibility rules are different depending on whether your property is in England or Wales.
If your property is in England:
To continue to be eligible for business rates, from 1 April 2023 your property must be:
- available for letting commercially for short periods that total 140 nights or more in the previous and current year; and
- actually let commercially for 70 nights or more in the previous 12 months.
If your property is in Wales:
To continue to be eligible for business rates, from 1 April 2023 your property must be:
- available to let commercially for short periods that total 252 nights or more in the previous and current year; and
- actually let commercially for 182 nights or more in the previous 12 months.
The VOA looks at whether the property was occupied immediately before midnight to establish whether a property was let on a certain night.
For example, this means that a property let out from Friday evening to Sunday morning would have been let for two nights for the purposes of meeting the self-catering criteria.
See: Changes to business rates rules for self-catering properties - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)