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Summer 2004 Newsletter

Home Office

An employee was required to set up an office for working from home, and the company provided desk, computer and filing cabinets. The worker had a brainwave, and wrote to the local council, claiming that his four-bedroom home had become a three-bedroom home, and could he please drop a council tax band? The council wrote back to say that he certainly could, and they enclosed an assessment for business rates on the fourth bedroom that was now 'in commercial use'. Ooops!

The Lands Tribunal had to sort out whether there really ought to be business rates on this sort of arrangement, and fortunately took a common sense approach. This was regarded as ordinary domestic use, the kind of thing that a huge number of employees use their houses for without changing their nature. It should be subject to council tax as a four-bedroom house, and not subject to business rates at all.

That's a relief, because the opposite decision would have had at least a complication - and probably a cost - for a great number of people. The Tribunal Chairman did give an idea of where the borderline lay - if you have permanent building alterations to adapt your house for business use, or you have customers calling on a regular basis, you will be liable for business rates. But having an office at home is not enough to lose your domestic status.