MORE than 4,000 businesses across Scotland have had around £32 million knocked off their tax bill following last year’s business rates shake-up.

Official figures show 73,845 appeals have been lodged following the controversial overhaul, with more than 16,000 of these resolved so far.

Of those, 4,180 firms had £69m wiped off their rateable value following a review – meaning they now have to pay around £32m less tax in total.

Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said the statistics demonstrated “firms are still clawing back millions they should never have had to pay in the first place”.

He said: “That’s massively damaging for the economy, and will have directly impacted on people’s livelihoods right across Scotland.

“When set against the SNP’s anti-business agenda more generally, it paints a very bleak picture.”

The rates revaluation in April 2017 left millions of firms facing tax hikes as their properties were revalued for the first time in seven years. Many retailers and pubs reported being forced out of business.

Meanwhile, firms across Scotland continue to pay more tax than their English counterparts due to the Scottish Government’s controversial large business rates supplement.

Larger businesses will have paid £189 million more in tax than they would have done if they were based down south by the end of the next financial year.

David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “The SRC has consistently argued it’s essential business rates revaluations take place more frequently, and these figures substantiate that argument.

“In both 2010 and 2017 around a third of revaluations have been appealed, demonstrating the complexity and confusion caused under the status quo.

“The Scottish Government was right to accept the recommendation of the Barclay Review to move to three-year revaluations from 2022, and we hope that move will help to reduce the necessity for businesses to appeal by creating a rates system which flexes more closely with the changes in the Scottish economy.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We have delivered the most competitive business rates package of reliefs in the UK, funding rates relief of around £720 million in 2017-18.

“We are also taking forward the recommendations of the Barclay Review, which recognised that reform of the appeals system is needed to modernise the approach, reduce appeal volume and ensure greater transparency and fairness.”