Section 8 – Discretionary relief: time limit
25.This section amends section 47 of the 1988 Act, which sets out the situations in which billing authorities may award and vary discretionary relief from non-domestic rating. Section 47(7) of the 1988 Act, which provides that a billing authority cannot make a decision to award or vary such relief more than six months after the end of the financial year, is omitted. New section 47(6B) is inserted, so that a decision to award or vary discretionary relief in respect of a hereditament is invalid, as regards a day, if the day falls before 31 March 2024 and the decision is made more than six months after the end of the financial year in which the day falls.
26.The effect is that the 2023-24 financial year is the last to which the existing six-month restriction on the awarding of discretionary relief after the year has ended will apply. This will enable local authorities to take a decision to award or vary discretionary relief from the chargeable amount more than six months after the end of the financial year to which the decision relates, in relation to the 2024-25 financial year onwards.
