What time does the tax year end?

w00519773

Everywhere I read tells me that you have until midnight on 05/04 to contribute to your ISA in the current tax year e.g. here: ISA deadline 2022: When’s the last day I can contribute? - Times Money Mentor (thetimes.co.uk).  Yet the new tax year starts on 06/04.

Do you have until 00:00 or 23:59:59 on 06/04 to contribute to your ISA in the current tax year?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

w00519773 said:

Everywhere I read tells me that you have until midnight on 05/04 to contribute to your ISA in the current tax year e.g. here: ISA deadline 2022: When’s the last day I can contribute? - Times Money Mentor (thetimes.co.uk).  Yet the new tax year starts on 06/04.

Do you have until 00:00 or 23:59:59 on 06/04 to contribute to your ISA in the current tax year?

A contribution with a date of 06/04 will be in the new (2023:24) tax year.

DullGreyGuy

w00519773 said:

Do you have until 00:00 or 23:59:59 on 06/04 to contribute to your ISA in the current tax year?

With banking system cut off times etc its likely to be earlier in the day

AmityNeon

The term ‘midnight’ for any specific date is terribly ambiguous (unless followed by ‘tonight’), but 00:00:00 is generally considered the start of a new calendar day.

It’s much safer to have everything wrapped up by Wednesday afternoon of 5th Apr instead of skirting the boundaries of 23:59:59 and 00:00:00, especially with various working day cut off times for processing transactions.

km1500

The tax year ends 23:59:59 on 5th April

If you want a more exact time then you will have to deal.with milliseconds, microseconds etc.

eskbanker

Anyone planning to subscribe to an ISA very late in the tax year should check if their provider accommodates this, as there's no obligation on them to accept subscriptions right up to the wire, so some have earlier deadlines to avoid being overwhelmed in a last minute rush....

Albermarle

It’s much safer to have everything wrapped up by Wednesday afternoon of 5th Apr

That would be too late for some providers, who have earlier cut off times.

TheBanker

Remember your outgoing Faster Payment could be delayed (e.g. security checks).

I would make the transfer a couple of days in advance (i.e today!) if you have the funds available. Leaving it to the last minute is asking for trouble.

surreysaver

The term 'midnight' or '00.00' should be avoided, as midnight today could have been this morning, or it could be tonight. 00.01 is obviously this morning, and 23.59 is obviously tonight.

dunstonh

Not so many years ago, a number of providers would have collection points in different counties to collect cheques right upto the final day.  Typically, it had to be in their hands with sufficient time for them to get them to a processing point.   Some were as late as 9pm.  Some where earlier.

I have noticed that some platforms are shutting the cheque payment deadline a day earlier this year.

It is unlikely any staff members would be working in the hour before midnight.  So, whether its 11.59, 12.00 or 12.01 really doesn't matter.  They would have a deadline before that.

TheBanker

dunstonh said:

Not so many years ago, a number of providers would have collection points in different counties to collect cheques right upto the final day.  Typically, it had to be in their hands with sufficient time for them to get them to a processing point.   Some were as late as 9pm.  Some where earlier.

I have noticed that some platforms are shutting the cheque payment deadline a day earlier this year.

It is unlikely any staff members would be working in the hour before midnight.  So, whether its 11.59, 12.00 or 12.01 really doesn't matter.  They would have a deadline before that.

Years ago, before online applications, Faster Payments and electronic ISA transfers were a thing, I worked for a small bank that decided to offer a market leading cash ISA rate.

My job was nothing to do with ISAs but I remember spending a couple of days opening application packs, checking and logging the contents and, if something was missing/wrong trying to call the applicant to sort it out. It was a case of all hands on deck - basically anyone who's normal job could be put on hold was directed to ISA opening for a few days. It was chaos but I think we managed to through everything in time.

We did have someone working overnight to scan the applications into our system because we only had two scanners and there wasn't enough time to deal with everything during normal hours (in addition to all the non-ISA work that needed scanning). And some of the account opening team (the proper team, who were actually opening the accounts) worked very long hours. 

The following year the company decided to deliberately issue a non-competitive rate to avoid a repeat of the situation.