Reliefs you may be able to get

You may get money off your non-domestic rates through the Small Business Bonus Scheme if:

• the combined rateable value of all the business premises you occupy is £35,000 or less
• each property you occupy has a rateable value of £20,000 or less
• the property is actively occupied

If your property needs a short-term let licence, you must have a valid licence to get relief.

Use the non-domestic rates calculator to work out your non-domestic rates bill after Small Business Bonus Scheme relief.

The benefits

You must declare all your business properties in Scotland to your local council.

What you need to apply

You need to complete an application form from your local council. You can usually do this online.

You’ll need to provide:

• your full name
• your address
• the rateable value of each business property you occupy

You must also sign an anti-fraud declaration.

You do not need to give sensitive information, such as staff numbers or your turnover.

Who cannot apply for the scheme

You cannot get Small Business Bonus Scheme relief for:

• advertisements
• car parks
• betting shops
• payday lending businesses
• some types of shootings

Shootings

You may be able to get rates relief for shootings that are on:

• crofts
• agricultural holdings
• small landholdings

You may also be able to get relief for shootings leased:

• on a commercial basis to anyone receiving support under the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) for new entrants
• for environmental purposes

A lease is for environmental purposes if the land is managed in ways that:

• support sustainable or regenerative agriculture
• help Scotland move towards its net‑zero emissions target
• help adapt to climate change
• protect, increase or maintain biodiversity

You can read about the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 on legislation.gov.uk. You may also be able to get relief for shootings and deer forests where shooting rights are used for:

• environmental management
• protecting woodland
• protecting farming

Any deer that are shot must also be used for venison for people to eat.

You can also apply if you have shooting rights but do not use them.

You may be able to get Business Growth Accelerator Relief if:

• your premises are a new build property
• you have to expand or make improvements to your property

New build premises

If your premises are new buildings, you will not have to pay non-domestic rates until 12 months after the building was completed.

You will also not have to pay on new buildings until they're occupied. New tenants will then qualify for business growth accelerator relief for 12 months.

New buildings that are unoccupied may be able to claim relief for up to 3 years.

Examples

A new building is occupied straight after completion. It may get relief for 12 months.

A new building is unoccupied for 3 years and then gets a tenant. It may get relief:

• for 3 years while empty
• an additional year for the new tenant

A new building is unoccupied for 5 years and then gets a tenant. It may get:

• relief for 4 years while empty
• no further relief for the new tenant

Expanding or making improvements to your premises

If you have to expand or make improvements to your property, the non-domestic rates you're charged will not change for 12 months. They’ll be based on your old rateable value for this period.

Registered charities can get 80% rates relief. This is only if the property is mostly used for charitable purposes. This could be by the charity occupying the premises, or by other charities.

This relief is not available for mainstream independent schools.

Registered Community Amateur Sports Clubs can also get 80% rates relief. This is only if the property is mostly used by that club or other registered community amateur sports clubs.

Councils can also offer up to 20% additional relief on top of the 80%. This would mean you would not have to pay any rates.

Councils can also choose to offer up to 100% relief on properties used by other not-for-profit organisations that:

• do charitable, philanthropic or religious work
• are concerned with education, social welfare, science, literature or the fine arts
• are mainly used for recreation such as sports clubs

You can get 100% relief on your non-domestic rates if you run a day nursery.

Your premises must be used only or mainly as a nursery school.

You may be eligible for up to 100% rates relief if you provide:

• residential accommodation for the care or aftercare of people who are ill
• training for disabled people
• welfare services or workshops for disabled people

You can get 50% relief on your rates if your premises are only or mainly used for a district heating network. This relief will be available until 2032.

From 1 April 2024, you can get a 90% relief if at least 80% of the network's energy comes from renewables. This relief will be available until 31 March 2027. 

You can get relief for electric vehicle charging points and associated parking bays. This is available from financial year 2026–27 to 2035–36.

Charging points must be available for members of the public to use. 

You may be able to get Empty Property Relief if your business property is unoccupied.

This depends on your local council. Different councils have different Empty Property Relief policies.

Ask your local council if they offer reliefs for empty properties.

If you occupy certain long-term empty properties, you may get a 100% rates discount for your first year in those premises.

You may be eligible if all of this applies:

• you started occupying the property on or after 1 April 2018
• the property had been empty for at least 6 months
• the property has a rateable value up to £100,000
• the property is actively occupied
• the property is not an advertisement, a car park, betting shop or payday lending business
• you have a short-term let licence for the property if you need one

You may also be eligible if your property is a shooting and it is:

• a croft, agricultural holding or small landholding
• leased commercially to someone who is new to farming and gets support under the Scottish Rural Development Programme
• leased using the Scottish Ministers' standard environmental lease, published under section 11 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025

You may also be eligible if the property is a shooting or deer forest and either:

• shooting rights are only used for environmental management, to prevent damage to woodland or farming, or both, and any deer that are shot are used for venison for people to eat
• shooting rights exist but are not used

If you do not meet these conditions, you may still qualify for the remainder of the relief if you were getting Fresh Start relief on 31 March 2026. Ask your local council for more information. 

Your local council can reduce your rates bill with Hardship Relief.

They'll need to agree that:

• you would be in financial difficulties without it
• giving hardship relief to you is in the interests of local people

Contact your local council and explain your situation if you think you're eligible.

The relief you can get depends on where in Scotland your business is. There are different rules for properties on the mainland and those on islands and in specific remote rural areas.

The specific remote rural areas are:

• Cape Wrath
• Knoydart
• Scoraig

Properties on the mainland

You may get rates relief from 2026–27 to 2028–29 if your property:

• has a rateable value of £100,000 or less
• is not in one of the specific remote rural areas

You may get 15% relief if your property is not a licensed hospitality premise or music venue.

You may get 40% relief if your property is a licenced hospitality premise or music venue. This includes pubs, restaurants and nightclubs.

In both cases, the maximum relief you can get is £110,000 for each business year.

Hospitality properties on islands and in specific remote rural areas

You may get 100% rates relief in 2026–27 to 2028–29. The maximum relief you can get is £110,000 for each business year.

You can find maps of the eligible remote rural areas in Scotland on legislation.gov.uk.

You may get 100% off your non-domestic rates if your renewable energy scheme gives one or more community organisations either:

• at least 15% of the annual profit
• an amount equal to the annual profit equivalent to 0.5 megawatt of the project’s total installed capacity

Renewable sources that can get the relief

Your scheme must produce heat or power from any of the following sources:

• biomass
• biofuels
• fuel cells
• photovoltaics
• water – including waves and tides, but not the pumped storage of water
• wind
• solar power
• geothermal sources

The generation activity must both:

• take place at the property itself
• be its main use – for example, a wind farm is eligible, but a wind turbine above a shop is not

How much relief you can get

The relief you can get depends on the rateable value of your property.

You can get 60% relief for individual properties if both of the following apply:

• your scheme produces heat or power from water – including waves and tides, but not the pumped storage of water
• the property has a rateable value of less than £5 million

This 60% relief will be available until 2032. 

You can get 100% off your non-domestic rates if your property is in a designated rural area with a population below 3,000 and it is:

• a small food shop, general store or post office with a rateable value below £8,500
• a small hotel, public house or petrol filling station with a rateable value of up to £12,750
• any other business providing a benefit to the community with a rateable value of up to £17,000

Contact your local council to find out if you're in a designated rural area and if you're eligible for this relief. 

You may be able to get non-domestic rates relief if you provide:

• fibre infrastructure
• telecommunication masts

Fibre Infrastructure Relief

You can get 100% relief if your business provides new fibre infrastructure for telecommunications.

The infrastructure must have been installed after 1 April 2019.

You can get this relief until 31 March 2034.

Relief for Telecommunication Masts

You can get 100% relief if your business provides telecommunications masts in specific locations across Scotland.

Check with your local council to see if your location is eligible. 

You can get this relief until 31 March 2031.

General Revaluation Transitional Relief

This relief limits increases in bills caused by the 2026 revaluation. You're eligible if your rates increase would be above the cap without the relief.

The caps are a percentage of the amount you had to pay on 31 March 2026.

The caps will not be adjusted for inflation. They last for one financial year.

This cap applies before any other reliefs.

You do not need to apply for this relief. Your local council will automatically apply it to your bill.

Self-catering holiday accommodation Revaluation Transitional Relief

If your property is licensed self-catering holiday accommodation, you can apply for a specific Revaluation Transitional Relief. This may give you a larger discount on your rates bill than the General Revaluation Transitional Relief.

Small Business Transitional Relief

This relief caps bill increases if on 1 April 2026 your property:

• was no longer eligible for the Small Business Bonus Scheme or saw a reduction in eligibility
• was no longer eligible for Rural Rate Relief
• was getting Small Business Transitional Relief in the 2023 revaluation cycle (2023–24 to 2025–26)
• was getting Hospitality Relief on 31 March 2026

This relief reduces the net bill increase in 2026–27 to 25% of what it otherwise would have been.

This cap applies after any other reliefs, including any Revaluation Transitional Relief.

You're not eligible for this relief if you need a short-term let licence but do not have one.