10,000 free cash machines could ‘close down within weeks’ over business rate battle

TENS of thousands of free supermarket cash machines are at risk of shutting down "within weeks" if a courtroom battle over business rates rules against them.

A five-year legal fight over fees between supermarkets and the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) - which oversees business rates - is due to come to an end.

If the Court of Appeal rules in favour of the VOA, then 10,000 ATMs at supermarkets and small shops could become unprofitable and close down, according to the .

But if the supermarkets win then the VOA will have to pay back £496million in back-dated fees on 15,500 cash machines, based on research by Colliers International.

The disagreement is over the different rates that are charged for ATMs in supermarket stores and the ones that are facing out on to the street.

Stores have to pay more for the ones that face the street because it's considered to have its own premise and therefore it's own business so requires separate rates.

Internal cash machines and ones that face private land like a supermarket car park don't pay separate taxes.

Supermarkets are challenging these rules and if the VOA loses the battle then it means that no cash machine should ever have been paying separate rates and will be getting a payout.

But if it wins then it will continue to tax £4,000 on 10,000 machines every year - which is £40million in total.

There are fears the £30.8billion owed in business rates this year could force firms to shut down the machines because it would mean they are making a loss.

John Webber from Colliers Insternational said: "We hope the courts see sense. If the VOA gets its way at the Court of Appeal, there is no doubt many big stores would be ripping ATMs out of their stores to avoid the extra business rate tax bill.

"Ultimately, it will be the consumer that suffers."

Whoever loses the Court of Appeal case is likely to take it to the Supreme Court.

The VOA told the Mail: "Both parties appealed to the Court of Appeal to obtain legal clarity on what should be taken into account when determining whether a property should be the subject of a separate assessment."

Only last month, we reported how thousands of free cash machines had been saved after the UK's largest ATM operator, Link, paused plans to increase fees charged to banks when customers withdraw cash from competitors' hole in the walls.

Cash machines across the UK are shutting down at a rate of 300 every month, alarming figures have revealed.

Experts have warned that the rapid closures to ATMS will cripple small firms, which rely on cash payments.

At the beginning of the year, we revealed that a staggering three quarters of UK hospitals with pay-to-use cash machines have no free alternatives - leaving patients and relatives with no choice but to use the costly ATMS.

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