Digitalising Business Rates: connecting business rates and tax data

The government has published a consultation on policy and IT design options to deliver its commitment to digitalise business rates.

This aims to join up existing tax data with business rates data held across government to allow:

• opportunities to better target business rates policy, including reliefs, in the future by having access to more comprehensive data
• more effective compliance
• a better experience of the business rates and wider tax system for businesses, including the ability to better understand and review their tax liabilities in one place

We welcome views from ratepayers, their agents and representatives, billing authorities, and any others who have an interest in the business rates or wider tax system.

Digitalising Business Rates (DBR) formed part of the government’s conclusions to its Business Rates Review at Autumn Budget 2021. Alongside measures announced in the Business Rates Review Final Report and the Valuation Office Agency (VOA’s) IT Transformation programme, DBR represents a major step towards modernisation of the system, which would tackle many of the concerns raised by stakeholders in previous consultations.

Alternatively, respondents are welcome to email their responses, making it clear which questions they are responding to.

The government will also hold a number of engagement events with livestreams on the 4 August (11am to midday), 10 August (2:30pm to 3:30pm), 16 August (11am to midday) and 25 August (2pm to 3pm), where officials will go through the consultation and give clarifications, and a series of roundtables with more detailed discussion in September. Respondents are welcome to contact HMRC if they are interested in attending.