As a sole trader or a director of a UK Ltd company, you must remember a few dates – most of the time, your accountants will remind you.

Self-assessment Tax return:

HMRC fixed the tax return period from 06/04/YYYY to 05/04/YYYY (the following year), and the submission deadline is 31 October (paper-based) or 31 January next year (online).

For example, the submission deadline for the tax year from 06/04/22 to 05/04/2023 is 31 October 2023(paper-based) or 31 January 2024(online). Any tax or NI owed must be paid by 31 January 2024.

Limited companies’ submission deadlines:

Limited companies’ yearend accounts must be submitted to the companies’ houses and HMRC by law.

For the company house, the submission deadline is nine months from the company’s yearend date; if the company’s yearend is 30/06/2023, the submission deadline is 31/03/2024.

For HMRC, the submission deadline is 12 months from the yearend date, but the payment deadline is nine months; therefore, for simplicity, 31/03/2024 is the deadline for 30/06/2023 yearend accounts.

VAT:

The deadline for the quarterly VAT submission & payment is one month & 7 days from the quarter end, i.e., the VAT quarter ends 30/06/23, and the deadline is 07 August 2023.

The VAT quarter ends 30/09/23; the deadline is 07 November 2023, and so on…

PAYROLL:

Payroll needs to be submitted each month, either on the calendar month-end or tax month end (which is 5th of the following month) and the PAYE payment to HMRC by 22nd for the last submitted payroll.

Always contact your accountants/agents to avoid any unnecessary penalties/hassle.