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English vineyards to see business rates hike
English vineyards are among the top ten businesses likely to be hit hardest by business rates hikes from April this year, it has been reported.
Rateable values on vineyards and wineries in the UK is set to go up 79.3% on 1st April, according to league tables seen by The Times newspaper. It showed the UK’s vineyards included in a list of the businesses likely to see the highest hikes, with others including polo fields, stud farms and equestrian centres.
However certain businesses are exempt from business rates, including agricultural land and buildings, and fish farms.
A spokesman for the WSTA said it was looking into the potential impact of an increase in rateable values for its members.
Around 500k businesses are set to have their rates increased following reforms to the way that rates are valued, but the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) states that it approaches all classes of property fairly and equally, and uses recognised methods to set rateable values.
Rateable values are designed to reflect open market rental values at a fixed date, (1 April 2015), which the VOA says is essentially the rental valuation of a property on a fixed date. “There is no single reason for average increases in rateable values across various categories; this will depend on the market for those types of property at the valuation date,” it states.