Pay your business rates

You can pay your business rates online using a debit or credit card. You can also set up a direct debit, pay by phone, or use your own bank systems. 

Pay your business rates

We offer 3 payments dates on which your rates can be collected - the 1st, 10th, or 20th of each month. You are billed annually but have the right to pay in monthly instalments. The best way to pay is by direct debit and you can set this up through the form in the related documents section of this page. 

To pay online you will need the reference number from your demand notice, as well as a way to pay, and your details. Paying should take under 5 minutes.

Pay your business rates

Other ways to pay your business rates

If you aren't able to use our online system you can pay by: 

• 24 hour automated telephone line: Freephone 0800 090 2223
• setting up a direct debit: download the form from the related documents section and return to us
• your own banking systems - our details are: sort code 20-55-70 and account number 03619389. Use the reference from your demand notice as the payment reference to help us process the payment quickly. 

Late payments

We offer 3 payment collection dates on which your business rates can be collected - 1st, 10th or 20th of each month. If an instalment is not paid by the due date we may issue a Reminder Notice.

If you do not make payment within 7 days of a Reminder Notice being issued the right to pay by instalments is lost and the whole balance for the remainder of the year becomes due.

If you bring your account up to date within 7 days of the first reminder notice but you are subsequently late in paying an instalment on a second occasion we are entitled to issue a Final Notice for the remaining balance of the annual charge.

If payment for the whole year has become due and is not paid in full you will receive a summons to Magistrates' Court. There is a charge of £80 once we issue a summons. 

If a Liability Order is granted by the court we decide the next stage of enforcement. This may be: 

• taking control of goods through an enforcement agent previously known as bailiffs
• committal to prison
• petition to the court for a declaration of bankruptcy
• petition to the court for a winding up order
• application for a charging order on the property.

There are charges for different stages of the enforcement process:

• summons to court - £80
• compliance stage of enforcement - £75
• enforcement stage - £235 + 7.5% of any debt over £1500
• sale or disposal - £110 + 7.5% of any debt over £1500. 

There may be further fees if the final stage of sale or disposal stage is reached. 

Subsidy Control (was State Aid)

Following the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the European Commission has approved schemes to aid businesses affected by the Coronavirus outbreak on the basis of their Temporary Framework, including the COVID-19 Temporary Framework scheme for the UK.

Under the State Aid rules, the maximum level of aid that a company may receive is €800 000 (€120 000 per undertaking active in the fishery and aquaculture sector or €100 000 per undertaking active in the primary production of agricultural products). This is across all UK schemes under the terms of the European Commission’s Temporary Framework. The Euro equivalent of the Sterling aid amount is calculated using the Commission exchange rate2 applicable on the date the aid is offered.

Any aid provided under this scheme will be relevant if you wish to apply, or have applied, for any other aid granted on the basis of the European Commission’s Temporary Framework. You will need to declare this amount to any other aid awarding body who requests information from you on how much aid you have received. You must retain this letter for four years after the conclusion of the UK’s transition from the EU and produce it on any request from the UK public authorities or the European Commission.

Aid may be granted to undertakings that were not in difficulty (within the meaning of Article 2(18) of the General Block Exemption Regulation) on 31 December 2019, but that faced difficulties or entered in difficulty thereafter as a result of the COVID- 19 outbreak.