The self-employed tax calendar has shifted and nobody is sure what is due when
The change in payment dates lands hardest on anyone who has just finished their first year.
The change looks technical: two payment dates have moved closer together. For someone who has just completed a first year of trading the result is concrete — two payments have landed in the same month.
Accountants say that is what the calls are about. The problem is not the rates, it is the calendar.
What traders describe and what the monthly numbers show line up this time. That has not happened often in the past two years.
Which dates have moved
Analysts agree on one point only: the effect will show up late. On everything else they split.
For a household budget the difference is not in the percentages, it is in which week the payment falls.
What to do in practice
Trade bodies say they expect a change in the rules. There is no draft to hang that expectation on yet.
If nothing is corrected before the end of the year, the same pile-up repeats. For now the only useful step is to diary the two dates separately and plan the cash flow around them.
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