BT Appeals its UK Full Fibre Business Rates Relief Certificate

Telecoms giant BT has lodged an appeal against its business rates relief “certificate” from HMRC’s (UK Government) Valuation Office Agency (VOA), which credible industry sources have told ISPreview allegedly relates to the issue of how much tax (rates) they pay on their new fibre optic broadband lines.

Back in April 2017 the UK Government introduced a welcome 5-year holiday on business rates for new fibre optic (FTTP) broadband infrastructure, which is due to expire next year (March 2022), but has otherwise made deploying new fibre lines a fair bit more affordable (i.e. “‘new fibre’ means fibre that was not laid, flown, blown, affixed or attached before 1st April 2017“).

The regulations state that such networks must be valued at the full rate, including the “new fibre“, and the valuation officer must then certify what proportion of the total value is represented by the “new fibre” (and associated plant and machinery) compared to the whole. A certificate is then issued stating that proportion, which can be presented to the relevant Billing Authority in order to get the appropriate reduction.

In this case, BT, which appears to be represented in the case by investment management firm Colliers (they specialise in business rates valuations and appeals), has lodged an appeal (M0267035) with the Valuation Tribunal Service (VTS) over one such certificate.

We queried this with BT and the operator declined to comment, which is not unusual as operators often prefer to await the outcome of such cases before going on the record. We also contacted the VTS, but they can only share information with those listed as being a party of the appeal. The appeal raises the question of how much BT was offered, and what was the basis for presuming that it wasn’t enough.

We’re continuing to investigate and will update if any credible new information arises.