Credits on business rates accounts

You can access a list of credits on business rate accounts in company names as of 1 April 2023.

The council has to offset credits against ongoing charges. This happens every year on 31 March. As a result 1 April provides the best snapshot of genuine credits on accounts.

The data is limited to company name, correspondence address, credit amount and the year it relates to.

• credits are only included where the ratepayer can be identified from our records as being a company
• the year is the financial year. So 2020 is the financial year 2020/21 ending 31 March 2021
• the correspondence address is the last contact address on the business rate records. The age of some of the credits means that these addresses may no longer be valid
• account references are not included as these are personal to the account

• accounts can cover multiple properties. Credits are held at account level, so no property information is listed

If you paid rates to us as a sole trader or partnership, and believe that you may have left a credit account, you can contact us. Call us on 01483 505050 or email brates@guildford.gov.uk.

The council aims to refund credits, especially when they are due to a change in rateable value or occupation.  

The rateable value of your property is set by the Valuation Office Agency. We use this value to work out your business rates bill.

Credits happen for various reasons:

• overpayment of instalments or payment of wrong amounts
• an attempt has been made to refund the credit but either the cheque was not cashed or bank details for a BACS transfer have not been provided
• change in rateable value
• change of occupation
• credit being held pending a new rating assessment - for example where the ratepayer has moved from their current premises to a new property

You will need to provide documents to show that you were the ratepayer. Email copies of the documents to brates@guildford.gov.uk. 

Once we are happy that the credit is valid and belongs to you then a refund will be made. Refunds are made by BACS bank-to-bank transfer.

The next annual list will be published in April 2024.

You can view a list of credits on business rate accounts in company names.

• Overpaid credit accounts April 2023 (Excel doc) [35KB]
• Overpaid credit accounts April 2023 (csv) [38KB]