Prepare for the End of the Tax Year

To ensure you’re prepared for the end of the tax year, 2014/15, Xperience Group have compiled a list of important dates and details you need to know.

With less than two weeks to go, the end of the 2014/15 tax year is nigh, which means businesses need to ensure their accounts are in order. It is imperative that businesses keep quality records and ledgers throughout the year, not only does this save time and money, but it’s also a legal requirement.

For those businesses who have been maintaining their business records, producing year-end accounts will be quick and painless. By preparing year-end accounts in a timely manner, businesses will have advanced knowledge of how much tax they may have to pay before it’s due. Furthermore, it means they can focus on the current financial year.

Finalising year-end accounts can be a time-consuming process. Very often businesses will need to carry out a stock take and ensure they have correctly valued their debtors and creditors. Business owners can select any date as their accounting year-end, but aligning the accounting date with the tax year is often the simplest option. Using an accounting year-end of 5th April or 31st March is the simplest way to apply the current year basis of assessment. If an accounting date falls later in the tax year, the period in which to make the tax payment will be shorter, and therefore there is a greater risk of incurring a penalty for late payment. Find out more about choosing a date for your accounting year-end here.

According to a recent survey by Clyesdale and Yorkshire banks, one in five small businesses have missed out on tax breaks and grants whilst one in ten have missed tax filing and payment deadlines. In order to prevent missing deadlines, businesses can invest in accounting or ERP software that provides the platform in which to maintain ledgers, create financial reports and have complete sight of all business data.

Timeline of Important Dates:

1st April- The main rate of corporation tax will reduce from 21% to 20%.

5th April- End of the 2014/15 tax year.

6th April- Start of the new financial year. HMRC will begin applying automatic in-year late payment penalties in respect of Real Time Information. Changes to the way people can take their pensions take effect.

7th April- VAT returns and payments due for accounting quarter period ending 28 February.

19th April- Final submission must be made to HMRC under RTI for the year, including answering the “end of year questions”. Deadline for postal payments remittance of PAYE, NICs and CIS to HMRC.

31st May- P60’s to be given to all employees and P11d to be filed with HMRC.

7th June- VAT returns and payments due for accounting quarter period ending 30th April.

6th July- Deadline for filing forms P9D, P11D, P11D(b) for previous tax year.

19th July- Class 1 A payment to reach HMRC (postal).

22nd July- Class 1 A payment to reach HMRC (electronic).

31st July- Second payment on account of tax for 2014/15 due to HMRC.

1st October- New minimum wage applies.

5th October- Deadline to advise HMRC that you need to register for self-assessment for the 2014/15 tax year.

31st October- Deadline for submitting tax return if you want HMRC to calculate your tax liability.

30th December- Deadline for filing income tax return with HMRC if you want any tax collected through your PAYE coding (under £3,000).