Are You Paying the Right Amount of Business Rates?
ATA provides Business Rates Relief for Small Businesses by reviewing your business rates bill, identifying potentially relevant reliefs and helping you understand what action may be needed with your local authority.
If the issue goes beyond relief and involves the property’s rateable value, we can work alongside an appropriate independent rating specialist while remaining involved in the wider accounting and business position.
A Business Rates Review Can Start With a Few Simple Questions
Small Business Rate Relief and other business rates reliefs depend on the property, its rateable value and the circumstances of the ratepayer. A change in premises, occupation or business use can also affect the position.
Has Your Bill Increased?
A higher bill may reflect revaluation, loss of relief or a change in circumstances.
Have You Taken Another Premises?
Additional properties can affect Small Business Rate Relief eligibility.
Have You Moved or Expanded?
Alterations, relocation and changes in property use can affect the rates position.
Is the Relief Missing?
If you think Small Business Rate Relief should be showing, the position may need to be checked with your council.
Business Rates Relief for Small Businesses With Premises
Shops, offices, restaurants, cafés, salons, workshops and other premises-based businesses can face business rates issues at different stages of their growth.
ATA’s Business Rates Review is designed to help identify what is already being charged, what relief is appearing on the bill and whether further action may be worth considering.
What We Would Look At
The objective is not to promise a reduction. It is to understand the bill, identify potential issues and determine the correct next step.
The Current Business Rates Bill
What property is being charged, what rateable value is being used and what reliefs or adjustments already appear.
Small Business Rate Relief
Whether the property and business circumstances appear consistent with the Small Business Rate Relief rules.
Other Premises
Whether the business occupies additional properties and how this may affect relief eligibility.
Changes in Circumstances
New premises, vacancy, alterations, moves and changes in business use can all require further review.
A qualifying business using one property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less may receive 100% Small Business Rate Relief.
£12,001–£15,000Relief is tapered for qualifying properties in this range.
Check GOV.UK guidance ↗Business Rates Changed Again From April 2026
The latest business rates revaluation took effect on 1 April 2026. Businesses that lost some or all of certain existing reliefs because of the revaluation may potentially fall within the Supporting Small Business Relief scheme, depending on their circumstances.
That makes 2026 a sensible time for some businesses to check that their new bill and relief position make sense.
Read Supporting Small Business Relief guidance →We Don’t Pretend Every Rates Problem Is an Accounting Problem
Some issues concern relief and local-authority administration. Others concern the underlying rateable value and require specialist rating expertise.
Review
We review the business rates bill, reliefs, property circumstances and accounting information.
Support
Where appropriate, we can help organise information for relief applications and council correspondence.
Escalate
If the rateable value itself needs challenging, ATA can work alongside an appropriate independent rating specialist.
Local councils administer business rates bills and reliefs. The Valuation Office deals with rateable values and valuation challenges. ATA can help identify the route and keep the wider accounting information organised.
Valuation and revaluation guidance ↗Particularly Relevant for Premises-Based Small Businesses
Business Rates Are Only One Part of the Picture
For many ATA clients, business rates sit alongside bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, corporation tax and the wider financial position of the business.
That is why Business Rates Relief support can work particularly well as part of an ongoing accounting relationship.
Independent Business Rates Guidance
These official resources provide further information about business rates, reliefs and valuation issues in England.
Start by Showing Us What You’re Being Charged
Tell us about the premises, your current business rates bill and anything that has recently changed. We can then help determine the appropriate next step.
Tell Us What’s Happening With Your Rates Bill
You do not need to know which relief or process applies. Tell us about the premises, the bill and the issue you have noticed.
