Business Tax
Business rates
From 1 April 2026, business rates bills in England ‘will be updated to reflect changes in property values since the last revaluation in 2023’. The small business multiplier is being reduced to 43.2p and the standard multiplier to 48p.
The government will also introduce permanently lower multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values under £500,000, set 5p below the national rates, making the small business RHL multiplier 38.2p and the standard RHL multiplier 43p. This will benefit over 750,000 RHL properties.
A new high-value multiplier will apply to properties above £500,000, such as the big warehouses of online retailers. This higher rate is being set at 2.8p above the national standard multiplier, making the high-value multiplier 50.8p in 2026/27.
Umbrella companies
An umbrella company employs workers on behalf of agencies and the businesses that the workers do the work for (the end client). From 6 April 2026, recruitment agencies and end clients will be jointly and severally liable for any payroll taxes on payments to workers supplied through umbrella companies, where a non-compliant umbrella company fails to remit them to HMRC on their behalf.
If the labour supply chain has:
- more than one agency, the rules apply to the agency that has the direct contract with the end client to supply the worker;
- no agency, the rules apply to the end client.