Trainee Business Rates Officer

at  South Gloucestershire Council

HOW YOU’LL MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The Finance and Customer Service Division is responsible for running a wide range of services from the collection of Council Tax, administering Housing Benefit and Blue Badges to running Corporate Finance, Payroll, One Stop Shops and the Contact Centres.
As a Trainee Business Rates Officer, you will make a difference by working in the team responsible for the billing and collection of business rates. Working under the guidance of the Assistant Revenues Manager you will determine Business Rates liability in accordance with working practices and procedures, whilst learning and attaining proficient knowledge in this area.

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU

• You must have 3 GCSE’s grades C or above with a willingness to become a fully trained Ratings Officer and a commitment to your ongoing personal development.
• Due to the nature of the role, you must have good planning, organising and numeracy skills.
• We require you to have excellent communication skills, both orally and in writing with a strong customer centric approach to service.
• You will have experience of using MS office.

HOW A CAREER AT SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNCIL IS DIFFERENT

We know our team work best when they have balance in their lives and we offer genuine flexibility to help them achieve that work/life balance.
We invest in the careers of our people and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps our people make the greatest long-term difference in their work.
What’s special here is the strength of the team ethos, the support and the training.
As part of our benefits package you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities.
We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.

Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.

• We’re providing essential services across our internal network to ensure we can fully support our community.
• We’re positive and forward thinking, always looking for new and innovative ways of working work and we’re ambitious about the future.

We’ve achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.

• It will be your responsibility to set up new accounts, administer payment plans and apply reliefs and exemptions.
• You will report changes to business rates to the Assistant Revenues Manager, to enable liaising with other Divisional Officers, Council departments or Government agencies, including reporting changes to the valuation office.
• Daily, you will carry out administrative requirements of assessing Business Rate liability, calculating refunds and preparing write offs.
• You will be required to check and verify personal details provided, including any relevant cross checking and computer searches, and when necessary, investigate the whereabouts of taxpayers, in order to recover debts.
• You are responsible for giving advice to customers and landlords with regards to revenues issues, providing a high level of customer care.