Business & Non-domestic rates

Non-Domestic Rates is a tax on properties or subjects that are entered on the valuation roll. Ratepayers must register for Non-Domestic Rates by supplying a copy of their signed lease; rental agreement or licence to occupy document by emailing the rates section at revenues9@falkirk.gov.uk or by sending to:

We are responsible for the collection of all business rates on behalf of Scottish Government for all Non-Domestic subjects within Falkirk Local Authority. Ratepayers will be issued with a rates bill detailing the rates charge and when instalments are due to be paid. Instalments are payable on the 1st of each month unless payment is made by direct debit.

The amount we collect is paid into the national Non-domestic rates pool. This is then redistributed by central government to Councils in the form of grants to help pay for services.

There are a number of different reliefs available to ratepayers. Please follow link in the menu on the right of this page. If you require assistance to determine which relief you may be entitled to please contact the rates section, and our details are below.

Please be aware you are not exempt from rates if your property has a rateable value under £18,000. You may be entitled to Small Business Bonus Relief; please apply online if you think you qualify.

If you no longer lease a property, please email or write to the rates section to advise.

If you sell or purchase a property please have your solicitor complete the form 'Business Rates - Change of Property Ownership.

From 01 April 2021 councils may request information from a proprietor, tenant or occupier. You must respond to this request within 21 days. Failure to do so may result in a civil penalty of up to £370. You must notify your Council of a change in occupier of a property within 42 days. Failure to do so may also result in a civil penalty of up to £370.

If you are having problems paying your non domestic rates you should contact us immediately. Please read our debt recovery policy for more information.

Downloads

Debt recovery policy

DOCX file, 50.1 KB

A valuation roll listing all properties that have to pay non-domestic rates is kept by the Assessor for Central Scotland. The Assessor also determined the rateable value (RV) of each property. If you no longer own or lease a property please also contact The Assessor for Central Scotland so that the valuation roll can be updated.

Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise have developed a new business rates bill calculator to estimate your business rates bill and a plain English business rates guide:

• Business rates guidance and calculator

There are mandatory and or discretionary reliefs available. You should contact the Non-domestic Rates team to check eligibility and to make an application. You can contact the Non-domestic Rates team on:

Important tax information for tenants of commercial property

Devolved tax legislation implemented on 01 April 2015 mean that some tenants in Scotland must, by law, submit a new tax return to Revenue Scotland every 3 years to ensure they have paid the correct amount of LBTT. The first time a 3 year lease review return became due was therefore 2018.

A return has to be submitted:

• every 3 years from the effective date of the lease
• at the point where the lease is assigned
• at the point where the lease is terminated

It is the responsibility of the tenant to submit the return – even if the lease has not changed or if no tax is due. Failure to do so will result in a penalty.

For further information please visit www.revenue.scot/leases.

Business Rates (Non-Domestic Rates) Freedom of Information requests

We receives a number of requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 which relate to Business Rate accounts (non-domestic properties).

To address these requests, we publish a list of details of business rates properties within Falkirk Council. This list is published each month and contains the following information:

• Ratepayer name
• Rateable value
• Property description
• Liability start date
• Property address
• Occupation Status (Occupied or Empty)
• Exemption
• Mandatory relief
• Discretionary relief
• Small Business Bonus
• UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number)

We will not provide individual responses to FOI requests for information which can be found in the published document but will re-direct requests to our published list which can be accessed below:

Downloads

NDR Freedom of Information

XLSX file, 469.5 KB, Updated: 03 December 2024

The information is considered to be exempt from release under section 25 of the FOI legislation as it is reasonably obtainable by another means, namely via our monthly publication.

Limitation of data.

The ratepayer is the person liable to pay the charge. Only the property address will be provided. The information is only available in the format provided.

Scottish Assessors Association Portal

The information which we publish is similar to that included on the Valuation Roll. This is a public document which contains an entry for all non domestic properties. You can find out more on the Scottish Assessors Association Portal.

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Publication of Relief Recipients

The independent Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates published its final report on 22 August 2017, and recommendation 10 was that a full list of recipients of rates relief should be published to improve transparency. This recommendation has been implemented from 2021, and quarterly reports will be published below using the format provided by Scottish Government.

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Frequently asked questions