header-logo header-logo

Charities & business rates: at cross purposes?

28 July 2023 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 8035 / Categories: Features , Public , Charities , Local government
printer mail-detail
132290
Should a charity’s entire premises attract business rate relief, or just those that benefit the public directly? Nicholas Dobson examines a recent case
  • Charity law assesses whether a body’s purposes are charitable by looking at its purposes and activities overall, not on a site-by-site basis.
  • Consequently, even if one site of a charity with multiple sites across the UK did not benefit the poor but, in the round, the charity did, the site in question was still eligible for mandatory business rate relief.

Charity may, as the Bible tells us, ‘cover the multitude of sins’ but can it provide any relief against tax liability? That was a question before the Supreme Court in March 2023 when the court had to consider ‘the intersection between two venerable bodies of English law, namely charities and rating’. The issue was whether a registered charity (whose purposes are ‘to advance, promote and maintain health and healthcare of all descriptions and to prevent, relieve and cure sickness and ill health

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Mourant—Stephen Alexander

Mourant—Stephen Alexander

Jersey litigation lead appointed to global STEP Council

mfg Solicitors—nine trainees

mfg Solicitors—nine trainees

Firm invests in future talent with new training cohort

360 Law Group—Anthony Gahan

360 Law Group—Anthony Gahan

Investment banking veteran appointed as chairman to drive global growth

NEWS
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll