A HOST of small businesses in Ballater, nine miles from the Queen’s Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, are paying higher rates than Her Majesty for deer stalking on her land.
After an appeal, the rateable value (RV) of shooting activities on the monarch’s country property was reduced from £22,500 to £10,800.
The non-domestic tax rates bill is worked out by a formula which multiplies the RV with the poundage rate, set by the Scottish Government – currently 49.8 pence for properties with an RV of up to £51,000.
This means Her Majesty’s annual business rates bill for shooting activities at Balmoral have fallen from £11,205 to £5378.
READ MORE: Queen gets tax bill on shooting activities at Balmoral estate slashed to lower than local businesses
In comparison, the Scottish Assessors’s valuation roll shows that the rateable value of Ballater School is £42,250.
Aberdeenshire Council pays a bill of £21,040 for the small school and nursery’s rates – four times more than the Queen pays for business rates for deer stalking at Balmoral.
Local businesses have considerable higher rateable value than the Queen’s shooting estates. Ballater Caravan Park, run by Ballater Community Enterprises Ltd, has a RV of £43,000 – and an annual business rates bill of £21,414.
The Darroch Learg Hotel in Ballater has a RV of £31,000 and a business rates bill of £21,414. A shop on the village’s Bridge Street has a RV of £18,000, meaning a bill for business rates of £8964.
Elsewhere in Ballater, the pub, the Balmoral Bar, has a RV of £35,000, while Victoria’s Restaurant’s is £12,250. A guest house, “No 45”, run by Alison Rosie and Leslie Towler on the Braemar Road has a rateable value of £11,250 – just over the new rateable valuation of £10,800 given to deer stalking at Balmoral.
A spokesman for Aberdeenshire Council confirmed rates are payable on schools. He referred the rateable value of properties and land to the Grampian assessor.
Ian Milton, the Grampian assessor, said the valuation of shooting estates in 2017 was carried out in good faith with the best estimates of rateable value given based on the information available.
He added subsequent to the publication of the initial rateable values of shooting rights and deer forests, the amount of information made available increased significantly and that resulted in valuations being refined and adjusted on appeal to reflect the position on the ground.
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