Rates on States buildings (FOI)

Request

A

Please can you tell me that if the States are to pay rates to the parishes for States buildings and property, what is the position for payment of rates by incorporated bodies such as Ports of Jersey, which have split off property from States ownership?

B

Are there any documents relating to which incorporated bodies do and do not pay rates? If so, could the information or links to them be made available.

Response

A

The exemption of the States from paying Parish rates (foncier rate and occupier’s rate) is contained in Articles 17 and 18 of the Rates (Jersey) Law 2005. Relevant extracts are provided below:

Article 17 Liability of owner to rates

(1) Any owner of land in a parish at the start of a rateable year is liable to pay to the parish the foncier rate levied by the parish in respect of the land for that year.

(2) However, the following land is exempt from the foncier rate

(f) land owned by any public or parochial authority and used exclusively for public or parochial purposes;

Article 18 Liability of occupier to rates

(1) Any occupier of land in a parish at the start of a rateable year is liable to pay to the parish the occupier’s rate levied by the parish in respect of the land for that year.

(2) However, the following land is exempt from occupier’s rate

(c) land occupied by any public or parochial authority and used exclusively for public or parochial purposes, but excluding land in the occupation of any employee of any such authority;

These exemption do not extend to the incorporated bodies, as they are not a public authority and hence they are liable to pay both parish and islandwide rate under the current Rates Law.

For the purposes of this answer the term incorporated bodies refers to the following entities:

• Andium Home Ltd
• Ports of Jersey Ltd
• States of Jersey Development Company Ltd
• Jersey Electricity plc
• Jersey New Waterworks Company
• Jersey Telecom Group Ltd
• Jersey Post International Ltd

B

Information on who owns/occupies land in the Island for rates purposes is contained in the Rates list maintained by each parish. Copies of the Rates lists are available in the relevant parish halls and also in the Jersey Library in St Helier. Following recent changes to the Rates Law, the publicly available Rates list for 2017 (and subsequent years) will not contain details of who owns/occupies land in the Island.