5 things you can do in March to prepare for the new tax year
As businesses across the country carry out last-minute tax preparation and begin thinking about starting the new tax year, it’s a perfect time to think about the simple changes you can make to ensure your tax submissions are a little easier next year. Take a look at 5 simple things you can do now to prepare for the new tax year 2018.
Update wages
With the new tax year comes changes to minimum and living wages. Make sure to check your employee’s wages, and increase them if necessary, to ensure you’re acting within the law. Changes to minimum wage for 2018/2019 are shown below:
Tax Year | 25 and over | 21 to 24 | 18 to 20 | Under 18 | Apprentice |
2017/2018 | £7.50 | £7.05 | £5.60 | £4.05 | £3.50 |
2018/2019 | £7.83 | £7.38 | £5.90 | £4.20 | £3.70 |
Review how you’re managing your finances
The new tax year is a perfect time to review how your business manages its finances. Take a look at your balance sheets for the last few years and identify areas where you can cut down on spending or reduce costs. Asking your accountant or a financial expert to take a look over these with you may help you to think outside the box about areas of potential savings, or new strategies moving forward.
Check employee details
You should use the new tax year as an opportunity to update your payroll data on your employees. Check their tax codes and National Insurance numbers to make sure that you’re paying the right amount of PAYE tax and NI contributions. Also, check their student loan repayment, as the threshold for this is also changing in the 2018/2019 tax year.
Pledge to keep on top of expenses
If you’ve found yourself scrambling to find expense receipts at the end of this tax year, this resolution is definitely for you! Simply recording business and employee expenses regularly throughout the year will help to save you significant amounts of time and effort when it comes to filing next year’s taxes.
Set up a simple spreadsheet to monitor company expenses, and consider a formal expense process for employees, such as setting a yearly expense budget for each team so you’re not at risk of spending too much.
Makes sure to keep hold of all receipts and invoices too, to make your accountant’s job a little easier when making the final submission for the tax year!
Switch to cloud-based accounting
Modernising how you manage your business accounting is a key priority for every business. Consider switching to cloud-based accounting for increased security, and also to help you get an overview of your finances easily throughout the year. Find out more about cloud-based accounting in our guide.
No matter what size your business is, having an expert tax accountant will help you to save money and time over the next tax year. Take a look at our tax services and contact us today to see how we can help you.