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A tradition of working at home goes back many years from taking
in washing and sewing to selling insurance, repairing cars or offering
services such as an osteopath or chiropodist. In more recent years,
with the development of e-commerce and communication by computer
and the Internet, many more people are working at or from home,
using the employer's office as a base only for meetings and downloading/picking
up work. With video conferencing even more meetings can be conducted
away from the workplace and at home.
If you work at or from home, you should
be aware that the accommodation within your home used as an 'office'
may be liable to business rates whilst the remainder of the property
will continue to be liable to council tax (although an alteration
may be made to its banding).
There are many considerations that we must
make in deciding whether a room in a house used as an office should
be liable to business rates and each case is considered on its own
merits. We will consider the effect of the extent and frequency
of the non-domestic use of the room and any modifications made to
the property to accommodate that use.
View examples
of working at or from home. In each example, we explain how council
tax or business rate liability may be affected.
Each case is considered on its own merits, and normally a member
of our staff will visit the property to check the facts before an
assessment is made for non domestic rates. If you require any further
guidance on this subject, please contact the Valuation Officer responsible
for your area. Details can be found under the where to find us pages.
You may also like to view the working from home Fact sheet in HTML or as a PDF.
This information should not be regarded
as a complete guide to the law.
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