Why 5th april

The Julian calendar, which consisted of eleven months of 30 or 31 days and a day February extended to 29 days every fourth year , was actually quite accurate. After centuries, though, even a small inaccuracy like this adds up. By the s it had put the Julian calendar behind the solar calendar by 10 days. However, the British did not make the change in , so there was a difference of 10 days between the calendar in Britain and the rest of Europe.

This sceptred isle. Root of all evil. Ethical conundrums. This sporting life. Stage and screen. Birds and the bees. Having done it once, the Treasury then decreed in that there would be another lost day of revenue, given that the century end would have been a leap year under the Julian calendar whereas it was not under the new Gregorian calendar. Thus was a leap year for tax purposes but not for the purpose of the calendar and so the tax year start was moved on again by a single day to 6 April.

This practice was dropped in and it seems that we are stuck with a 6 April start date for our UK tax year. The UK is very rare in having a 5 April tax year end. Changing the tax year should be a longer term plan — perhaps over four or five years — because there will be costs and transitional rules to address and individual taxpayers, businesses, tax advisers, accountants, HMRC and other government departments will need time to prepare.

A cautious approach is also needed to avoid confusing and overwhelming taxpayers because of ongoing reforms such as, potentially, basis period reform in - which involves changing the time period for which a sole trader or partnership pays tax each year - and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment which starts in But we would like 31 December considered seriously, too, given that it is used by much of the rest of the world and is likely to be more easily understood by taxpayers in general since it coincides with the calendar year.