There are special rules which limit the ability to change your company’s accounting year end date. A company’s year end date is also known as its ‘accounting reference date’ and is historically set by reference to the date the company was incorporated. Under certain circumstances it is possible to make a change to the accounting year end and for some businesses this can have trading and / or tax benefits.

As a general rule, you can only change the year end for the current financial year or the one immediately before it. Making a change to a year end date will also change the deadline for filing accounts (except during a new company’s first financial year).

There is no limit to the number of times you can shorten a year end date but you can only extend the period to a maximum of 18 months once in every five years. The financial year can be extended more often under limited circumstances such as when the company has been put into administration.

A request for a change to an accounting reference date can be made online (preferred and quickest option) using the Companies House online service or by using a postal version of the Change of accounting reference date (AA01) form. No change can be made to a period for which accounts are overdue.

There is no overriding reason for using one date over another but there are a number of factors to take into account. The most common year end dates are usually 31 December (to coincide with the end of the calendar year) or 31 March (to coincide with the end of the tax year).

The Register of Overseas Entities came into force in the UK on 1 August 2022. The register is held by Companies House and requires overseas entities that own land or property in the UK to declare their beneficial owners and / or managing officers.

HMRC has recently published an updated list of the UK-regulated agents who have an agent assurance code and can complete verification checks on beneficial owners of an overseas entity. This is not a complete list nor does Companies House endorse or accept any liability for these agents or for any services they provide.

A UK-regulated agent must complete verification checks on all beneficial owners and managing officers of an overseas entity before it can be registered with Companies House.

They must be based in the UK and supervised under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017. They can be an individual or a corporate entity, such as a financial institution or legal professional.

After registering, an overseas entity will receive a unique Overseas Entity ID to give to the land registry when it buys, sells, transfers, leases or charges UK property or land. 

If you have taxable income of less than £17,570 in 2023-24 you will have no tax to pay on interest received. This figure is calculated by adding the £5,000 starting rate limit for savings (where 0% of the interest is taxable) to the current £12,570 personal allowance. In addition, there is also a Personal Savings Allowance (PSA). This allowance ensures that for basic-rate taxpayers the first £1,000 interest on savings income is tax-free (effectively allowing qualifying basic-rate taxpayers to receive up to £18,570 in tax-free interest per year). For higher-rate taxpayers the tax-free personal savings allowance is £500. Taxpayers paying the additional rate of tax on taxable income over £125,140 cannot benefit from the PSA.

It is important to note that if your total non-savings income exceeds £17,570 then the starting rate limit for savings is unavailable. There is a tapered relief available if your non-savings income is between £12,570 and £17,570 whereby every £1 of non-savings income above a taxpayer's personal allowance reduces their starting rate for savings by £1.

Interest from savings products such as ISA's and premium bond wins do not count towards the limit. Taxpayers with tax-free accounts and higher savings can still continue to benefit from the relevant PSA limits.

Banks and building societies no longer deduct tax from bank account interest as a matter of course. Taxpayers who need to pay tax on savings income are required to declare this as part of their annual self-assessment tax return.

Taxpayers that have overpaid tax on savings interest can submit a claim to have the tax repaid. Claims can be backdated for up to four years from the end of the current tax year. This means that claims can still be made for overpaid interest dating back as far as the 2019-20 tax year. The deadline for making claims for the 2019-20 tax year is 5 April 2024.

There is still time to register for the marriage allowance before the current tax year ends on 5 April 2024. The marriage allowance applies to married couples and those in a civil partnership where a spouse or civil partner does not pay tax or does not pay tax above the basic rate threshold for Income Tax (i.e., one of the couples must currently earn less than the £12,570 personal allowance for 2023-24). HMRC has revealed that March is the most popular month for marriage allowance applications, with almost 70,000 couples applying in March last year.

The allowance works by permitting the lower earning partner to transfer up to £1,260 of their personal tax-free allowance to their spouse or civil partner. The marriage allowance can only be used when the recipient of the transfer (the higher earning partner) does not pay more than the basic 20% rate of income tax. This would usually mean that their income is between £12,571 and £50,270 during 2023-24.

For those living in Scotland this would usually mean income currently between £12,571 and £43,662.

Using the allowance, the lower earning partner can transfer up to £1,260 of their unused personal tax-free allowance to a spouse or civil partner. This could result in a saving of up to £252 for the recipient (20% of £1,260), or £21 a month for the current tax year.

If you meet the eligibility requirements and have not yet claimed the allowance, then you can backdate your claim as far back as 6 April 2019. This could result in a total tax break of up to £1,256 if you can claim for 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 as well as the current 2023-24 tax year. If you claim now, you can backdate your claim for four years (if eligible) as well as for the current tax year.

HMRC’s online Marriage Allowance calculator can be used by couples to find out if they are eligible for the relief. An application can then be made online at GOV.UK.

As well as filing accounts with Companies House, there is an important requirement to check that the information Companies House has about your company is correct every year. This is facilitated by the filing of an annual company confirmation statement. Companies House can prosecute a company and its officers for failing to file a confirmation statement and the company can be struck off. 

Companies House guidance on the confirmation statement entitled Filing your company's confirmation statement has been updated with new measures introduced under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act.

A confirmation statement must usually be filed at Companies House once every 12 months and rather than resubmitting data every year the confirmation statement only needs to be updated if you have changes to report. If there are no changes then you just need to confirm the information is correct and submit the statement. The due date is usually a year after either the date your company incorporated or the date you filed your last annual fee was paid. You can file your confirmation statement up to 14 days after the due date. Any necessary updates such as to the statement of capital, shareholder information and SIC codes can be made when submitting the confirmation statement.

There are now 2 separate forms for completing a confirmation statement. The Confirmation Statement CS01 should be used if your confirmation date is 4 March 2024 or earlier, to confirm that the company's details are up to date. Confirmation Statement form CS01 (new version) should be used if your confirmation date is 5 March 2024 or later, to confirm that the company's details are up to date. Existing companies will need to give a registered email address when they file their next confirmation statement with a statement date from 5 March 2024. 

It currently costs £13 to file your confirmation statement online and £40 if you send Companies House a paper form. These fees are set to increase to £34 and £62 respectively from 1 May 2024.

Leaders from top comparison sites, RAC and The AA will be among those meeting the Energy Affordability Minister to help share new fuel price data and keep costs down for motorists. 

Price comparison sites and map apps will have access to this new data as part of the government’s PumpWatch initiative, which aims to drive down prices at the pumps. The scheme will look to make fuel prices, updated within 30 minutes of changes, available to the public by the end of this year. The move will further drive competition and place even more power back into hands of consumers and motorists to get the cheapest fuel available in their area.

The latest step follows the government’s plans and support for motorists in the Spring Budget 2024, as fuel duty is frozen for a further 12 months, extending the 5p fuel duty cut and cancelling any increase with inflation. This has saved the average car driver around £250 over the past 3 years and is worth £13 billion.

Working with The AA, Confused.com, Go.Compare, PetrolPrices.com and RAC, the government is making sure the freely available data will be simple and easy to understand. The data could be used by journey planning sites and in-car devices too, to help over 41 million drivers to help save money wherever they live in the UK. 

The government presses on with work to keep bringing down costs for hardworking families. The fuel duty cut extension, alongside maintaining fuel duty rates at their current levels for another year, will save families 7p a litre for petrol and diesel compared to previous plans.

In a recent announcement by the Treasury, it was announced that plans are afoot to deliver up to £1.8bn of productivity benefits by 2029.

The aim is to improve public sector productivity, including releasing police time for more frontline work. 

The Chancellor is promoting increases in public sector productivity as an alternative to accepting an ever-increasing bill for public services as the government sticks to its plan to move on from the high spending and high tax approach that was necessary to get the UK through the shocks of Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to the Treasury spokesperson, a new focus is needed on the long-term decisions required to strengthen the economy and give people the opportunity to build a wealthier, more secure life for themselves and their families. 

Covering frontline services, the plan is designed to help public servants get back to doing what is most important: teaching our children, keeping us safe and treating us when we’re sick.

According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, returning to levels of pre-pandemic productivity could save £20 billion a year. This would help manage the size of the state in the long term, whilst maintaining public service quality and delivering savings for taxpayers.

In the Spring Budget, the Chancellor extended the fuel duty cut for a further 12 months to help support households and businesses at a time of high oil prices. The Chancellor acknowledged that the rising price of fuel places a huge burden on families and businesses.

The government was under considerable pressure from consumer and business groups to try and alleviate the pain of high fuel prices. This means that the temporary cut in the rates of fuel duty introduced at Spring Statement in March 2022, and extended multiple times are to be extended for a further 12 months until 22 March 2025.

The assumed inflation increases in fuel duty in 2024-25 will not now take place. This will maintain fuel duty rates at current levels for another year and represents a reduction of around 7p per litre for main petrol and diesel rates in comparison to previous plans.

In a move that may partly have been prompted by seeking to mirror a longstanding policy of the Labour party, the Chancellor has announced that the generous non-dom rules are to be axed.

From April 2025, the government plans to abolish the remittance basis of taxation for non-UK domiciled individuals and replace it with a simpler residence-based regime. Individuals who opt into the regime will not pay UK tax on foreign income and gains (FIG) for the first four years of tax residence. They will continue to pay tax on UK income and gains, as is currently the case for non-domiciled individuals. The Chancellor said that after four years, those who continue to live in the UK will pay the same tax as other UK residents.

Individuals who on 6 April 2025 have been tax resident in the UK for less than 4 years (after 10 years of non-UK tax residence) will be able to use this new regime for any tax year of UK residence in the remainder of those 4 years. 

Individuals who move from the remittance basis to the arising basis on 6 April 2025 and are not eligible for the new 4-year FIG regime will, for 2025-2026 only, pay tax on 50% of their foreign income. This reduction applies to foreign income only; it does not apply to foreign chargeable gains. For 2026-27 onwards, tax will be due on all worldwide income in the normal way.  

Overseas Workday Relief (OWR) will also be reformed from April 2025 with eligibility for the relief based on the new regime. OWR will continue to provide Income Tax relief for earnings from duties conducted overseas for the first three years of tax residence with restrictions on remitting these earnings removed.

The government has also announced an intention to move to a residence-based regime for Inheritance Tax from 6 April 2025. This will be subject to consultation.

A higher rate of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) applies to gains on the disposal of residential property if the gain falls into the higher rate band. In the Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced a reduction in the higher rate that exists for residential property from the current rate of 28% to 24% from 6 April 2024. These rates apply to higher rate taxpayers as well as to trustees and personal representatives. The lower rate that applies to basic rate taxpayers will remain unchanged at 18%.

It is expected that the 4% reduction in the 28% rate will help increase revenue for the Treasury as the new rate is expected to increase the number of transactions. The Chancellor joked that perhaps for the first time in history both the Treasury and the OBR have discovered their inner Laffer Curve!

Most people are aware that they may not have to pay CGT when they sell their qualifying residential property used wholly as a main family residence. However other sales of property that are not a principle private residence, will be subject to CGT.

This includes:

• buy-to-let properties
• business premises
• land
• inherited property

There are various reliefs available from CGT for the sale of qualifying business assets.

The 18% and 28% rates of CGT that apply to gains in respect of carried interest remain unchanged from 6 April 2024. These rates previously mirrored those for CGT on disposals of residential property.

As part of the Spring Budget measures, the Chancellor announced that the duty rates on beer, cider, wine and spirits would be frozen at the current rates from 1 August 2024 until 1 February 2025. This is an extension to the previous alcohol duty freeze announced in last year’s Autumn Statement that took effect on 1 February 2024 and was scheduled to last for 6 months until 1 August 2024. The Chancellor said this move will benefit some 38,000 pubs across the UK.

It was also announced as part of the Spring Budget that the government will introduce legislation in a future finance bill to introduce a new duty on vaping products. The government has published a consultation on the detailed design and implementation of the duty. The consultation will close on 29 May 2024.

Registration for the duty will open on 1 April 2026 with the duty taking effect from 1 October 2026 alongside a proportionate increase in tobacco duties.

The duty will apply to liquids for use in vaping devices and e-cigarettes at the following rates:

• £1 per 10ml for nicotine free liquids
• £2 per 10ml for liquid containing nicotine at concentrations between 0.1 to 10.9mg per ml
• £3 per 10ml for liquids containing nicotine at concentrations 11mg per ml, or above

The government will also make a one-off tobacco duty increase of £2 per 100 cigarettes or 50 grams of tobacco from 1 October 2026.

No further changes to the duty rates on tobacco products were announced.

The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) came into force January 2013 and has applied to taxpayers whose income exceeds £50,000 in a tax year and who are in receipt of child benefit. It was announced as part of the Spring Budget measures that the income threshold at which HICBC starts to be charged will be increased from £50,000 to £60,000 effective from 6 April 2024.

The HICBC is charged at the rate of 1% of the full Child Benefit award for each £200 (2023-24: £100) of income between £60,000 and £80,000. (2023-24: between £50,000 and £60,000). For taxpayers with income above £80,000 (2023-24: £60,000) the amount of the charge will equal the amount of Child Benefit received. The HICBC therefore either reduces or removes the financial benefit of receiving child benefit. Increasing the HICBC threshold is expected to have a positive impact for approximately 485,000 families. 

The Chancellor had been subject to intense lobbying regarding the unfairness of this charge as it is levied on an individual basis. For instance, currently dual income families on £49,000 each (with a household income of £98,000) may not be liable to the HICBC, but a single parent earning over £50,000 would be. Going forward, the government intends to administer the HICBC on a household rather than individual basis, but this move is expected to take until at least April 2026.

For new Child Benefit claims made after 6 April 2024, any backdated payment will be treated for HICBC purposes as if the entitlement fell in the 2024-25 tax year if backdating would otherwise create a HICBC liability in the 2023-24 tax year.

If the HICBC applies to you or your partner it is usually worthwhile to claim Child Benefit for your child, as it can help to protect certain benefits and will make sure your child receives a National Insurance number. However, you still have the choice of continuing to receive child benefit and pay the tax charge or elect to stop receiving Child Benefit and not pay the charge.