Know your rateable value before the Budget, then re-run the cost sheet

By Jason Sibley

Rates are a people-cost decision too

Ask an owner what's squeezing their margin and wages come up first. Employer National Insurance usually follows. Business rates sit further down: the bill arrives, gets paid and gets filed under "premises".

That's a mistake. Wages, employer National Insurance and rates come out of the same pot: whatever's left after you've sold something. If one moves, either the other two absorb it or your prices do. Tracking them separately makes that easy to miss.

You probably know what every member of staff costs. Far fewer owners could quote their rateable value from memory, yet the whole rates bill hangs off that number. It deserves the same attention as payroll.

I won't guess what will be announced on 28 October, and I'd be wary of anyone who does. This is about knowing your numbers beforehand. It isn't tax advice. Your accountant should check anything that touches tax; your local council or the valuation service can answer questions about your rates bill.

Two numbers to know before 28 October

HM Treasury says the Budget is on Wednesday 28 October 2026, and the OBR publishes its Economic and fiscal outlook the same day. That leaves a short window to check two things.

Your rateable value

Look it up on GOV.UK's Find a business rates valuation service, even if you think you know it. Bills changed at the 1 April 2026 revaluation, so a figure you remember from before then may be out of date.

Keep these three facts from GOV.UK alongside it, for England:

• Small business rate relief gives 100% relief at a rateable value of £12,000 or less, tapering to £15,000.
• For 2026/27 the small business multiplier is 43.2p below £51,000 rateable value. For retail, hospitality and leisure it's 38.2p below £51,000.
• Supporting Small Business relief caps increases for those who lost relief at the revaluation.

If you're in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, or in the Republic of Ireland, the arrangements differ. Check with your own authority. Your bill shows which multiplier and relief apply to you. If it isn't clear, ask your council rather than working it out yourself.

Whether you claim Employment Allowance

GOV.UK's rates and thresholds for employers page says Employment Allowance for 2026 to 2027 is £10,500. It reduces your employer Class 1 National Insurance, and eligibility rules apply.

Ask your accountant whether you're claiming it and where it appears on the payroll summary. Some owners discover they should have been claiming it only when someone checks. Others assume it's in place when it isn't. It takes five minutes to check. Get the answer before the Budget.

Add them to the cost sheet

If you've already built the sheet from Budget 28 October: get your cost sheet ready, add the lines below. If you haven't, start there. Keep rates and Employment Allowance on the same sheet as wages.

Add these lines:

• Rates: your rateable value, the relief you currently receive (if any), the multiplier on your bill, and the annual bill itself. Copy these from your bill and the GOV.UK lookup. Don't recalculate them.
• Employment Allowance: whether you claim it, and the amount your accountant confirms you've used this year.
• A "what if" column, left blank until the official documents are out. Then fill it using figures from GOV.UK and your accountant.

You can ask an AI tool to add the lines to your existing sheet. The prompt tells it to leave gaps for you to fill. Paste your current sheet layout underneath it.

Je suis propriétaire d'une petite entreprise au Royaume-Uni.

Use this English version:

I run a small business in the UK. Below is the layout of my cost sheet.
Please add these lines to it, using British English and plain wording:

1. Business rates: rateable value, relief received, multiplier, annual bill.
2. Employment Allowance: whether we claim it, and the amount used this year.
3. A "what if" column beside every cost line, left empty for me to fill in
   after the official Budget documents are published.

Rules:
- Do not invent any figures, rates, thresholds or dates. Leave every
  number blank and write "OWNER TO FILL IN" where I need to add one.
- Do not predict what the Budget will contain.
- Do not give tax advice. Where something needs checking, write
  "CHECK WITH ACCOUNTANT" beside it.
- Keep my existing lines exactly as they are.

My current sheet layout:
[paste it here]

For the cash side, the weekly cashflow sheet guide shows how to set one up with AI. You supply the numbers; the AI does the layout.

On the day

Wait for the GOV.UK documents and the OBR publication before changing anything. Headlines and social posts on Budget day can oversimplify or get details wrong. Use the official paperwork.

Note the date each measure starts. It often differs from the announcement date, and your cost sheet needs the start date. Add figures to the "what if" column only when you can point to their official source.

Then send the sheet to your accountant and ask what applies to your business. They know your payroll, reliefs and circumstances. For a wider view of where AI can help with these pressures, see labour costs and tax pressure: where AI helps.

For the relief checklist itself

For a step-by-step check on whether you might be getting the right relief, see the business rates relief check before the Budget.

One last thing

At My AI Apprentice we run AI sessions for small businesses, in plain English, using your own figures and paperwork. If setting up a sheet like this sounds like a job you'd rather do alongside someone, you're welcome to get in touch. No pressure either way.