Owner of UK's first pagan burial ground in 5,000 years told he must pay business rates as a 'storage unit'

A farmer who built the first new long barrow tomb in the UK in more than 5,000 years has been told that he must pay thousands of pounds in business rates on it.

Tim Daw, the owner of the burial ground used by Pagans, has been told by the Valuation Office Agency that he must pay between £4,500 to £5,000 a year in business rates for his burial mound where people pay to inter the ashes of their loved ones.

Long barrows were in widespread use in the early Neolithic period and examples still exist today, but the burial method fell out of use.

Usually, church graveyards and burial grounds are exempt from the tax as they are seen as places of worship. But Mr Daw has been told that his long barrow is a commercial storage facility that must pay the tax, as it falls above the rateable value on a business property of £12,000.

Mr Daw, from Devizes, Wiltshire, said the decision means mourners visiting his tomb will have to “pay to pray” and that the move discriminates against non-Christian forms of worship.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/29/uks-first-pagan-burial-tomb-5000-years-hit-business-rates-bill/

The tiny minds of "jobsworths" !

LF should sue for discrimination

The question is, why does not such a place, be entittled to exemption here on buisness rates?

https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-business-rate-relief/exempted-buildings-and-empty-buildings-relief

This is blatant discrimination and he should take this to court

Ah well, as Benjamin Franklin said: "...in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes..."

Governments and local authorities can always be relied upon to continue extorting our hard-earned cash even when we are either in a single space six feet under, in a burial mound with a bunch of other dear departed or up the crematorium chimney in a cloud of smoke.

Telegraph wrote:Usually, church graveyards and burial grounds are exempt from the tax as they are seen as places of worship. But Mr Daw has been told that his long barrow is a commercial storage facility that must pay the tax, as it falls above the rateable value on a business property of £12,000.

How interesting.  Now the government is in the business of determining what is, and what is not religion.

I must consult them on transubstantiation and when the soul awakens.  I wouldn't want to be in the wrong stage of consciousness when it comes time for taxes.