changing tax year end

glazingjack

Hi,

As a self employed business I would like to change my end of tax year from 5th April ( which it has been for the last 10 years) to 31st March, This is to align with credit card statements and bank statements and make it easier when I have to complete Making Tax Digital ( currently my gross earnings is about 25K). I work on cash basis so this will mean invoices paid in early April will go into next tax year.

Is there any issue with doing this and do I just have to change the date on my tax return

Many thanks in advance

35har1old

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6663553/changing-tax-year-end

No chance of that happening

Savvy_Sue

You (obviously) can't change when the UK tax year begins and ends. What you can do is change when your business accounting period begins and ends.

How you doing this depends on the nature of your 'business entity'. If it's just you, as a self-employed person, I believe it's more straightforward than if you're a limited company.

If you've ever used an accountant, talk to them. Otherwise I'd start with Google - as I did.

LessImpecunious

Came across this last year when doing basis period reform (which confuses the issue a bit as most online discussion relates to that), and my (not an expert!) understanding is that HMRC effectively treats any accounting end date between 31st March and 5th April as if it was the 5th April (end of tax year). So I think you can change the date (and inform them on SA form), with any profits between 31st Mar and 5th April allocated to the next tax year.

The relevant bit of HMRC guidance is

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim81210.

I googled around a bit too and that seems to be the way others (reddit forums, etc) have interpreted the HMRC manual…🙂 Someone more expert may correct me.

LITRG

Hi Glazingjack we have information on our website on how you can make an election for your quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital to follow calendar quarters: https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-nic/making-tax-digital-income-tax/record-keeping-and-quarterly-updates-making-tax-digital#5 . There is also information on HMRC's helpsheet : https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-calculate-your-taxable-profits-hs222-self-assessment-helpsheet/hs222-how-to-calculate-your-taxable-profits-2026#days-following-a-late-accounting-date-and-businesses-starting-on-or-after-1-april-2026 . Hope this information is useful.