Non-domestic rates - money off your bill
Small business bonus relief
This relief can only be awarded to properties that are in active occupation, except deer forests and shootings where shooting rights are not exercised in practice. If your property is unoccupied, you must apply for empty property relief instead.
You will qualify for small business bonus relief on your occupied properties and excepted deer forests and shootings, if the combined rateable value of all your properties in Scotland you are liable for is £35,000 or less and where the individual property has a rateable value of £20,000 or less.
Level of relief available
Where you are liable for a single property and the rateable value is:
- £12,000 or less - 100% relief is awarded.
- between £12,001 and £15,000 - relief is tapered from 100% to 25%
- between £15,001 and £20,000 - relief is tapered between 25% and 0%
Where you are liable for more than one property and the combined rateable value is:
- £12,000 or less - 100% relief is awarded to each property
- between £12,001 and £35,000 and the individual property rateable value is £15,000 or less - 25% relief is awarded on this property
- between £12,001 and £35,000 and the individual property rateable value is between £15,001 and £20,000 - relief is tapered between 25% and 0%
A separate application is needed for every property that you wish to apply for. You must declare any other properties in Scotland that you are, or were, liable for at the same time as the property you are now applying for. If you are or were liable for more than 5 properties at the same time as this one you are making an application for, you need to upload a list of these properties when making your application. You must tell us the full address and postcode of each property along with the approximate dates of liability for each property. You can upload most types of documents including PDF, Excel, Word and image files. Please have these to hand before you start your application.
For information on the relief type, how to apply or renew, please access using the buttons below.
We aim to process your application within 10 working days. Due to current volumes of customer contact and correspondence, there may be a delay to this timescale.
We are working hard to reduce our response times and will process your application as soon as possible.
From the 1 April 2026 we can't give Small business bonus relief to:
- properties used wholly or mainly for payday lending
- properties used wholly or mainly to accommodate advertisements
- car parks/parking spaces
- betting shops
- properties which are used wholly or mainly for a purpose for which a short-term let licence is required but for which no such licence has been obtained
- deer forests, except:
- those on which shooting rights are exercised solely for the purposes of environmental management or for preventing damage to woodland or agricultural production, or a combination of those purposes, and any deer shot are available for human consumption as venison
- those on which shooting rights are not exercised in practice - shootings, except:
- those which are crofts, agricultural holdings or small landholdings (in other words properties which are on crofts, agricultural holdings or small landholdings), or shootings which are leased on a commercial basis to a person who, in accordance with the Rural Development (Scotland) Regulations 2015, is in receipt of support under the Scottish Rural Development Programme, on account of being a new entrant to farming
- those which are leased in accordance with the model lease for environmental purposes made available by the Scottish Ministers in terms of section 11 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025
- those on which shooting rights are exercised solely for the purposes of environmental management or for preventing damage to woodland or agricultural production, or a combination of those purposes, and any deer shot are made available for human consumption as venison
- those on which shooting rights are not exercised in practice
Between 2023/24 to 2025/26 we can't give Small business bonus relief to:
- properties used wholly or mainly for payday lending
- properties used wholly or mainly to accommodate advertisements
- car parks/parking spaces
- betting shops
Small Business Bonus Relief Review
We are currently reviewing all small business bonus relief. If we have your email address, instructions will be sent by email, otherwise a letter will be sent to you. Please ensure you complete your review form(s) when asked, quoting your rates reference number from the email or letter.
Small Business Bonus Relief for storage containers
Storage containers are non-domestic properties irrespective of whether the container is used for business or personal storage. If you have received a non-domestic rates bill for a storage container, then you are entitled to apply for small business bonus relief using the online form below.
Submit evidence
If you have already made an application for small business bonus relief and you have been asked to provide evidence in support of your application, you can use our online form to provide this. If you need help with uploading evidence, see our guidance on uploading files to online forms.