ABSTRACT
Non-domestic rates are a property tax. Many of the fundamental concepts found in the law of rating are also found in or overlap with those found in property law. The arrangement and configuration of apparatus can affect how and who is liable to pay rates. It will be limited to introducing the legal framework of rating in very general terms but highlighting the peculiarities which apply to telecommunications apparatus and sites. As will be seen, the nature of telecommunications and how the industry operates have required certain assumptions to be made by statute so that the industry can be shoe-horned into a taxation system devised for different times and different sorts of interests in land. The legislation provides the Secretary of State, or in relation to Wales, the Welsh Ministers, with powers to set the level of the relief by prescribing the amount of relief in regulations.
