Important UK dates for Tax, IR35 and Self Assessment

Keeping track of all the dates and deadlines of the tax year can be stressful. There’s no getting around them unless you want to run afoul of the law and incur heavy financial penalties. To help you manage your time for managing your taxes, here is a handy list of all the important dates for the rest of the 2019/20 tax year you need to keep in mind.

30 December 2019

If you are filing self assessment tax returns online through your PAYE tax code, you can get HMRC to collect the overdue tax. However, you need to submit the tax returns on or before this date. Also, you can only do this if your overdue tax amounts to less than £3,000.

The benefit of submitting your self assessment tax return online is that the tax will be paid over the course of 12 months from April 2020 instead of all at once in a lump sum by 31 January 2020.

31 December 2019

If you have a limited company with a 31 December 2018 year-end, you need to file your corporation tax returns on or before this date. If you fail to pay on time, you will be fined £100, which will increase the longer you take to make the payment.

If you have a limited company with a 31 March 2019 year-end, you need to file your company accounts with Companies House on or before this date. If you fail to pay on time, you will be fined £150, which will increase the longer you take to make the payment.

1 January 2020

If you have a limited company with 31 March 2019 year-end, your corporation tax needs to be paid on or before this date. This particular deadline actually depends on the year-end of your company. It is set nine months and a day after your year-end. There is a late payment interest rate of 3.25%.

14 January 2020

Your company can claim returns on Income Tax, interest, alternative finance payments, manufactured payments from abroad and tax on relevant distributions by completing and submitting Form CT61. You need to file Form CT61 by this date.

If your company makes over £1.5 million in profit, you will be paying corporation tax quarterly. The first payment is due six months and 13 days after the first day of your company’s accounting period. The following instalments are due in three-month intervals.

Since companies tend to start their accounting period on January 1 of a tax year, the first instalment has to be paid by 14 July, the second on 14 October, and the third on 14 January of the following year, hence this deadline for the 2019/2020 tax year. The last payment is due 14 April.

31 January 2020

This is the most important date to remember if you are self-employed or you own a small business, as this is the deadline for submitting your self assessment income tax returns online for the 2018/19 tax year.

You have until midnight of the 31st January 2020 to file your tax returns, but it would be in your best interests to get it done way before then so as not to make any mistakes while rushing to beat the deadline.

However, there are exceptions to this deadline. If HMRC sends you a notice after 31st October 2019 to make an online tax return, your deadline is set to three months from when you received the notice.

If you are in a partnership with a limited company and their accounting date is between 1 February and 5 April, the deadline also differs:

• For online tax return submissions, the deadline is 12 months from the accounting date
• For paper tax return submissions, the deadline is 9 months from the accounting date

Another payment that is due on this same day if you are self-employed is your first payment on account for the 2019/20 tax year.

If you are within IR35, this is the final day for the following:

• Correcting your 2018/19 employer return
• Pay outstanding PAYE and Class 1 National Insurance Contributions to not be penalised if you don’t make final returns by the normal due date

31 January 2020 is also the last day for paying all of your taxes from the 2018/19 tax year that you still owe.

5 March 2020

While there is no specific payment due on this date, it does mark the beginning of the last 30 days until the end of the 2019/20 tax year. By this point of the tax year, you should be looking into finalising everything you need to get in order.

31 March 2020

If you have a limited company with a 31 March 2019 year-end, you need to file your corporation tax on or before this date. If you fail to pay on time, you will be fined £100, which will increase the longer you take to make the payment.

5 April 2020

The 2019/20 tax year comes to a close on this date.

It’s also important to remember that the start of the 2020/21 tax year is when IR35 will begin covering the private sector. Medium and large-sized businesses will have to adopt the new off-payroll working rules.

Fines for Missing Deadlines

To make it absolutely clear as to how much it can cost you to miss deadlines, here’s a breakdown of the fines for late tax returns:

• £100 for being one day late
  • £10 for each additional day of being late, capping out at 90 days
  • £1000 maximum for being three months late
     
• £300 or 5% of your due tax for being six months late
  • Whichever is higher is your fine
  • This fine is in addition to the previous fine
     
• £300 or 5% of your due tax for being 12 months late
  • Whichever is higher is your fine
  • This fine is in addition to the previous two fines
  • You may be fined 100% of your due tax if your case is deemed serious

Plan Your Tax Activities Today

With the remaining dates for the 2019/20 tax calendar set, you have no excuse to make every single deadline. Schedule when you need to file your tax returns and make your payments in advance, so you can enter the holidays and the new year with peace of mind.

You can also refer to our bookkeeping guide to make sure you’re compliant, especially if you're a freelancer in the offshore industry.