Enterprise zone relief
If you are located within the Discovery Park Enterprise Zone in Sandwich, you may be able to get enterprise zone relief on your business rates.
This scheme ended on 31 March 2018 but backdated applications can be accepted.
Enterprise zone relief is subject to State Aid rules. State Aid rules exist to avoid publically-funded assistance distorting competition within the European Union. You should note carefully the requirements needed to comply with the European State Aid rules and if need be, refer to the relevant legislation.
The De Minimis Regulation allows an enterprise to receive up to €200,000 De Minimis aid over any period of three financial years (as set out in EC Regulation 1998/2006 as published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 28 December 2006).
To establish whether you are eligible to receive enterprise zone relief, you must tell us the full amount of De Minimis aid which you have already been granted during the previous two financial years and the current financial year. Any assistance you may have received from a public body might be a De Minimis aid. This could be from central, regional, devolved governments or agencies or a local authority.
We will use this information to work out if you are entitled to enterprise zone relief.
The following is a list of possible forms of aid. Please note this is not a complete list. However, it should give you an idea of common forms of aid which you may have been given over the past three years.
If you have received De Minimis aid, you should have received a letter telling you that the assistance you were given was under the De Minimis regulation.
If you are in any doubt as to whether previous assistance received would count as De Minimis assistance please contact us as soon as possible.
Forms of possible aid
- State grants
- Interest rate relief
- Tax relief
- Tax credits
- State guarantees or holdings
- State provision of goods or services on preferential terms
- Direct subsidies
- Tax exemptions
- Preferential interest rates
- Guarantees of loans on especially favourable terms
- Acquisition of land or buildings either gratuitously or on favourable terms
- Provision of goods and services on preferential terms
- Indemnities against operating losses
- Reimbursement of costs in the event of success
- State guarantees, whether direct or indirect, to credit operations preferential re-discount rates
- Dividend guarantees
- Preferential public ordering
- Reduction of, or exemption from, charges or taxes, including accelerated depreciation and the reduction of social contributions
- Deferred collection of fiscal or social contributions
- Assistance financed by special levies
- Capital transfers
- Certain State holdings in the capital of undertakings.