The invention discloses a polishing method for a lithium tantalate substrate. The method includes the steps of 1, grinding a cut tantalate lithium wafer with an abrasive material with the particle size of 5-20 microns, and obtaining a lithium tantalate grinding sheet with the surface of a rough structure; 2, directly conducting chemical corrosion on the lithium tantalate grinding sheet in a sealed container filled with the mixed acid of nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid, wherein the roughness of the tantalate lithium wafer is smaller than 200 nm, and the flatness is smaller than 5 microns; obtaining a lithium tantalate corrosion sheet with the surface of a random disordered pit structure; 3, conducting single-side polishing on the lithium tantalate corrosion sheet with a single-polishing machine and a polishing liquid, wherein the polishing pressure is 0.005-1 MPa, the roughness of the tantalate lithium wafer is smaller than 0.5 nm, and the flatness is smaller than 3 microns; obtaining a lithium tantalite polishing sheet. The polishing method has the advantages of one-time polishing, batch production and high polishing efficiency, and the produced lithium tantalate substrate has high surface flatness which determines that the lithium tantalate substrate is not easily broken in the application of devices; the material utilization is high, and the processing yield is high.