Employers need to submit a final Employer Payment Summary online by 19 April 2018. This is for the PAYE year ended 5 April 2018. If staff are paid monthly, then this would be the 13th submission of the year.

 
Employers must make Fourth Quarter payments of PAYE and NICs by 19 April 2018 if settled by cheque. If you pay electronically, then you have until 22 April to make the payment. Tax retained under the Construction Industry Scheme must also be paid by the same date.

 
Construction Industry Scheme returns for the month from 6 March to 5 April 2018 should be submitted online by 19 April. This includes NIL returns.

It is only too easy to forget the need to submit a NIL return when no payments to subcontractors have been made. If you engage a local accountant to do your CIS returns, then this will be taken care of. In our case we keep a diary and do a batch of work at about the same time each month. We aim to be the Carlisle accountants that businesses will turn to for a range of advice and services.

 
Value Added Tax returns for the quarter ended 28 February 2018 are due to be submitted by 7 April 2018, and any payment which is due should be made electronically by the same date.

 
The end of the income tax year on April 5th 2018 is approaching, and it may be timely to think about some tax planning.

Make ISA contributions if you have not done so already. Current interest rates are so low that it might seem not worth the bother, but ISAs might still serve as the first steps in setting up a private pension scheme for yourself while maintaining some liquidity.

If you are running a small company, then it may be a good idea to have a payroll scheme in existence and to be paying yourself a salary in order to make some use of your Personal Allowance. You may wish to vote yourself a dividend, at least up to the tax-free limit of 5,000 pounds per person. Discuss these topics with your accountant. We can produce dividend minutes and tax vouchers to assist you.

If you have a portfolio of shares, then you may wish to cash some in and to buy others, and at the same time make use of the Annual Exemption for Capital Gains Tax of 11,300 pounds. Again discuss this with your accountant.

 
It can happen sometimes that when you are an employer, you have not actually made any wage or salary payments for a PAYE month such as the month from 6 February to 5 March 2018. In that case you must submit electronically an Employer Payment Summary as a NIL return by 19 March. This is too easy to overlook.

If you engage a local accountant and business adviser or a payroll bureau to do your wages, then this will be taken care of. In our case we keep a diary and do a batch of payrolls at about the same time each month. Our payroll files are bright yellow like the old P30BC booklet so we do not overlook them.

 
Construction Industry Scheme returns for the month from 6 February to 5 March 2018 should be submitted online by 19 March. This includes NIL returns.

It is only too easy to forget the need to submit a NIL return when no payments to subcontractors have been made. If you engage a local accountant to do your CIS returns, then this will be taken care of. In our case we keep a diary and do a batch of work at about the same time each month. We aim to be the Carlisle accountants that businesses will turn to for a range of advice and services.

 
Value Added Tax returns for the quarter ended 31 January 2018 are due to be submitted by 7 March 2018, and any payment which is due should be made electronically by the same date.

 
If the Revenue send you a tax return, then you must fill it in and send it back by the deadline, or there will be a penalty.

What happens when you retire or there is a radical change in your circumstances? Sometimes the Revenue machine will just go crunching on, sending you returns when you no longer need to complete them. If necessary, we will write to the Revenue to ask them to stop sending you returns, and this is a free service to clients. We will look on the Revenue website after April 6th and check that they haven’t sent you a return, and e-mail you the evidence. You become an ex-client after that.

Often the Revenue will save us the bother of writing to them by sending us a note at about this time of year. We will still check after April 6th.

 
It can happen sometimes that when you are an employer, you have not actually made any wage or salary payments for a PAYE month such as the month from 6 January to 5 February 2018. In that case you must submit electronically an Employer Payment Summary as a NIL return by 19 February. This is too easy to overlook.

If you engage a local accountant and business advisor or a payroll bureau to do your wages, then this will be taken care of. In our case we keep a diary and do a batch of payrolls at about the same time each month. Our payroll files are bright yellow like the old P30BC booklet so we do not overlook them.