Key dates for the 2020-2021 tax year

The 2020/2021 tax year starts on the 6^th April 2020 and finishes on the 5^th April 2021. It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with as many important dates as you can to help keep you compliant and avoid penalties.

We’ve put together a tax planner with all HMRC’s key dates. Get them in your new diary, while you’re planning everything else. When they’re fully integrated into the rest of your life, there’s no last minute panic about finding paperwork or getting fines for missing deadlines.

Not all of these dates will apply to you. Some are just for PAYE taxpayers and some will only be useful for the self employed. Skim through and highlight the ones that you need and make sure you know what you need to do in plenty of time before an HMRC deadline.

Your tax planner

5th April 2020:

• Deadline to submit a PAYE tax rebate claim for the 2015/16 tax year

6th April 2010:

• Start of the 2020/2021 financial year
• Tax free Personal Allowance amount and tax bands come into effect. For England and Northern Ireland, this remains the same as 2019-20.
• You get your new tax code for the year in your P2 Notice of Coding letter– check it is correct
• Submit your 2019-20 PAYE tax rebate claim
• Organise your paperwork for your self assessment tax return. You must show all your income, including earnings from pension and property.

31st May 2020:

• Issue your employees their 2019-20 P60s, if you are self employed
• If you are employed, make sure you have your 2019-20 P60

6th July 2020:

• Self employed taxpayers’ deadline to pay their second payment on account for 2019-20 tax year
• 2019-20 payment settlement agreements deadline
• Your employer will give you your 2019-20 P11d. Chase them up if you don’t get it.

5th October 2020:

• For those with income from leasing property: the deadline to submit your SA1 form to declare this income
• Self employed: CWF1 form deadline. This is to inform HMRC that you are self employed

31st October 2020:

• PAYE taxpayers: deadline to send your Tools Capital Allowances claim for items purchased in the 2016-17 tax year
• Self assessment tax return deadline for submitting this on paper is 11.29pm.

30th December 2020:

• If you have less than £3,000 tax bill for the 2018-19 tax year and you want to pay it through your PAYE tax code, this is the deadline to make that request to HMRC.

31st January 2021:

• Midnight deadline for online self assessment tax return submissions
• 2019-20 tax bill payment deadline

5th April 2021:

• Last day of 2020-21 tax year
• PAYE tax rebates for 2016-17 tax year deadline

If you know something applies to you, but you don’t really understand all the implications, then find out sooner, rather than later. We provide an assortment of free tax guides that really get into the detail of each issue using clear language. They are a good place to start.

We help lots of clients to put systems in place that means they accumulate all the paperwork they need as they go along. This avoids that awful last minute scrabble for key information as a deadline looms.

This is especially true if someone makes a big change in their employment circumstances, like going self employed for the first time. That self assessment tax return can feel quite daunting. But you don’t have to work it all out yourself. Keep everything hassle free by thinking about it now, ask us any questions and plan in the steps towards each deadline.

Let’s all have a prosperous and stress free 2020-21 together.