Making Tax Digital for income tax self-assessment has been delayed for at least two years. But there is one change that is going ahead as planned.

All unincorporated businesses will have to report their accounting results on the tax year basis from 2024/25 onwards. This means that if you prepare accounts to a date other than 31 March or 5 April you will have to apportion the profits out of 2 sets of accounts to get to the figure that goes on your tax return. If your year-end is late in the tax year, the results for the second set of accounts may not be known in time to put accurate figures on your tax return, meaning you will have to submit a provisional return and then amend the results once they are known. Your tax accounts are going to get messy.

HMRC have said that as basis period reform has been legislated for, the timetable for introducing it is staying as it is.

In order to get around this problem, consider changing your year end to 31 March 2024 and annually thereafter.