Reference
The year, and what is due in it.
Dates for a company with a 31 March year end and a VAT quarter ending in March, June, September and December. Yours may differ; the shape does not. Where a deadline falls on a weekend, the payment date moves earlier, not later.
How we work to them
- VAT filed
- D−5 days
- Payroll submitted
- on or before pay day
- Self assessment filed
- by 30 Nov
- Year-end file to accountant
- within 6 weeks
Fixed dates
Through the year
| Date | What | Who it applies to |
|---|---|---|
| 5 April | Tax year ends | Everyone with employees |
| 19 April | Final payroll submission for the year | Employers hard stop |
| 31 May | P60 to every employee on the books at 5 April | Employers |
| 6 July | Benefits in kind reported | Employers with company cars, medical cover, loans |
| 22 July | Class 1A national insurance paid | Same easily missed |
| 31 July | Second payment on account | Self assessment, if payments on account apply |
| 5 October | Register for self assessment if newly self-employed | First year only |
| 31 October | Paper self assessment return | Nobody we act for — we file online |
| 30 December | Online return if you want tax collected through PAYE | Employed with under £3,000 of other tax easily missed |
| 31 January | Online self assessment return, balancing payment, first payment on account | Self assessment |
Rolling
Dates that depend on your own year
| Trigger | Deadline | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| VAT quarter end | +1 month, 7 days | Filing and payment are the same date on Direct Debit, taken three days later |
| Each pay date | on or before | Full payment submission. Late filing penalties start at the second occasion in a tax year |
| Monthly PAYE | 22nd | Electronic payment. The 19th if you still pay by post |
| CIS return | 19th | Nil returns still have to be filed |
| Company accounts | 9 months after year end | Filed at Companies House; first-year companies get 21 months from incorporation |
| Corporation tax payment | 9 months and 1 day | Before the return is due the usual trap |
| Corporation tax return | 12 months after year end | Three months after the money was due |
| Confirmation statement | Yearly, on its own date | Not accounts; a separate filing that people forget entirely |
Corporation tax is the one to remember
The payment is due three months before the return that calculates it. That is not a mistake in the rules — it is why we prepare the year-end file within six weeks of the year ending, so the number is known in month two rather than month eleven.
If something is late
Tell us the same day
Late is recoverable; hidden is not. Penalties for a late return are fixed and appealable, interest on late payment accrues daily, and a time-to-pay arrangement is almost always available before enforcement starts and almost never afterwards.
We have never filed a client's return late. We have several times filed one on behalf of a business that came to us three years behind, and every one of those started with somebody ringing this office and saying so out loud.