Support for businesses impacted by COVID-19 through the commercial rates waiver

Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, significant and unprecedented support was provided to ratepayers by Government, in the form of commercial rates waivers.

Waivers were applied to ratepayer accounts as credits in lieu of commercial rates.

Applications from ratepayers were not required. Local authorities automatically applied a 100% credit in lieu of commercial rates for the relevant period of the waiver scheme to eligible ratepayers.

For the waiver in place for nine months of 2020, a total of €729m of commercial rates were waived for over 120k ratepayers.

A 100% waiver was applied to all businesses with the exception of a small number of categories, mainly banks, utilities, large supermarkets and corporates. The rationale for the exclusion of certain categories of ratepayers is that their operations are not as severely impacted by the pandemic, coupled with the need to direct resources appropriately. However, provision was made for businesses in excluded categories to demonstrate serious impact to the relevant local authority and claim the waiver.

The Q1-Q3 2021 rates waiver scheme was a separate scheme with more limited eligibility criteria than the 2020 rates waiver scheme. For the waiver in place for Q1 to Q3 2021, a total of €424m of commercial rates were waived for over 70k ratepayers.

The 2021 rates waiver scheme applied to businesses most seriously affected by the restrictions. Automatic eligibility was extended to hospitality including hotels, pubs and restaurants, leisure and entertainment, personal services such as hairdressers and barbers, and various other sectors. Categories of commercial property, such as offices, industrial premises, banks, building societies and credit unions were not automatically eligible, but could qualify if they could provide proof of serious impact to their local authority.

The Q4 2021 rates waiver applied to property categories in areas such as hospitality, including pubs and restaurants, entertainment and leisure, certain tourism related properties and airports.

For the more limited waiver in place for Q4 2021, a total of €61.5m of commercial rates was waived for just over 20k ratepayers. That is a total of €485.3m for 2021.

Government agreed on 6 December 2021 to extend the targeted Q4 2021 waiver, on the same terms to cover Q1 2022.

For the waiver in place for Q1 2022, a total of €61.7m of commercial rates was waived for over 20k ratepayers.