The Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) has published a document setting out the scope for a review into amending the end of the tax year date, which is 5th April at present.

The 31st March is being considered for the proposed new date, which is both the end of a calendar quarter and the nearest month end date to the current tax year, as well as being the UK financial year end date to which the UK government makes up its own accounts.

The report is to focus on the benefits, costs and wider implications of such a change.

In addition to 31st March, they will also look at how it would work running the tax year to 31st December, thereby aligning this with the calendar year, similar to the US, France and Germany.

Whilst a date for completing the review has not been published, we will certainly be keeping a keen eye on any updates for this.

It should be noted however, any review would only provide suggestions and does not necessarily mean the changes will be implemented, as we saw with the recent reports and suggestions for inheritance tax and capital gains tax.