Legal requirements for tourism businesses

If you operate bed and breakfast or self-catering accommodation, you may need to pay business rates.

If you operate a bed and breakfast you may have to pay both non-domestic rates, on the portion used for guest accommodation, and domestic rates on the portion used for owner/staff accommodation. See business rates.

Business rates do not apply to a bed and breakfast where:

• facilities have less than six bed spaces available
• letting out the rooms is subsidiary to the use of the rest of the house as your home (looking at, for example, the length of your season, the scale of changes carried out for guests and how much of the house you live in)

Business rates do not apply to a self-catering accommodation where:

• the facilities are available for short-period lets less than 140 days a year

Domestic and business use

If you have to pay business rates, but use your property for business and domestic purposes, only the part you use for business purposes is subject to business rates. You will have to pay domestic rates for the residential part of the property.