5.The legislative framework for non-domestic rating is set out in Part III of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (c.41). Property which is subject to non-domestic rating is valued every five years. A valuation is carried out by a valuation officer. He is appointed by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, and he has a duty to compile and maintain an accurate list of property subject to non-domestic rating (a ‘rating list’). There is a local rating list for the area of each local authority to which non-domestic rates are payable. Certain special classes of property are entered on the central rating list for England or the central rating list for Wales, as appropriate. These classes of property consist for the most part of property of the former nationalised industries which extends beyond the boundaries of a single local authority. New rating lists come into force at five year intervals.
6.A rateable value, entered in the appropriate rating list in respect of each property, when multiplied by the national non-domestic rating multiplier specified annually by the Secretary of State, determines the amount of rates payable in respect of that property for each of the five years during which each rating list is in force.
7.The way in which the rateable value is determined is for present purposes virtually the same as that applicable under the previous legislation, the General Rate Act 1967 (c. 9). That Act consolidated legislation dating from 1925 and earlier. Methods and principles established in a considerable body of case law decided in relation to pre-1988 legislation are still considered to be relevant to the estimation of the rateable value for the purposes of the present system of non-domestic rating, though domestic property is no longer taxed in the same way.
Background Valuation for non domestic rating