Well, that's done January......

The dust begins to settle and we can put our feet up, yes?

100% success rate for us, as we got all of our clients' tax returns in before the deadline.

So can we rest? Well, thanks to Rachel in Accounts, no, we cannot.

All self employed clients whose turnover exceeds £50,000 have the honour of being statutorily obliged to start submitting their information quarterly, with effect from April of this year. If you are a property owner, who is receiving more than £50,000 in rental income from your portfolio, then you will be very pleased to know that you have been included in the directive as well, except that the bonus that Rachel has added for you is an additional 2% tax on your rental income, from April 2027 onwards.

By their own admission, the government admit that this venture is going to cost you hard working taxpayers an additional £300 per year on average for the software alone, without mentioning the increase in accountancy fees, that result from doing the same work five times a year. And don't think that we are accountants who can't add up having read this. Having submitted 4 quarterly returns through the year.....you STILL have to submit a tax return at the end of the tax year as normal. How all this can be claimed to be putting "more money into the working mans pocket" I fail to comprehend.

Oh, and by the way, if you are breathing a sigh of relief at not being over the £50,000 threshold for 2026, then beware because the threshold reduces from April 2027 to £30,000 and in April 2028 to £20,000.

We are already starting to set up our clients who meet the 50k threshold for 2026 in our Xero software systems, in readiness for a smooth starting point in April. Our Xero software providers have developed a special "Simple" edition of their software just to meet the needs of basic sole traders and landlords, including a version for including both sole tradership and property income businesses in the one product.

If you would like help then let us know by filling in the enquiry form on our services page and we will be in touch to find out how we may be able to help you.