It should not come as any surprise. It happens at the same time every year. Is this year any different? Well, the news headlines are different, we have new world crises and there are impending changes to the tax system.
By the way, that headline is not a misprint!
There is a question that I have shared with so many people over the years and 98% don’t know the answer. And yet it is something that everyone, whether in business or not, should have a pretty clear idea where they are going.
It is a multipart question:
On 1 January 2036 how old will you be?
On 1 January 2036 where will you be?
Will you be in business? If so, how many people will you employ and what is your turnover and profit before tax?
Quite simple really, but most people just cannot give me an answer. Many have an answer lurking at the back of their heads but don’t want to disclose it for fear of ridicule. We used to refer to this as your BHAG (your Big Hairy Audacious Goal). But, if you can draw this out, you find out what they want to achieve in their dreams. Once you know that, you can plan how to get there. Even if you don’t get there, you will be all the better for having tried and much better off at the end of the day.
It’s a very useful tool. If they are just starting out or even if they are building up, you find out their 10 year goal and can make plans to reach it.
Someone at the other end of their career may say that on 1 January 2036, they want to have sold up and be retired. So, in that case, you are packaging up your business for succession or sale, and this is quite a different set of strategies going forward.
But without knowing the answer to my question, you cannot determine the appropriate strategies to adopt.
Of course, it may be that in future years you want to have your tax affairs in better order. Did you realise that 6.36 million taxpayers in the UK have filed their 2025 income tax returns in the last 9 months but that a further 5.65 million will need to do it in the next few weeks to avoid penalties. This is higher than at the same time last year.
54,053 people chose to see in the New Year by filing their tax return on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. 342 filed their returns between 11 and 12 on Hogmanay, which makes you wonder if they thought the filing deadline was 31 December. A very popular time for filing tax returns was just before lunch on 31 December.
There are always the usual suspects who only let us have their details in the last few days of January.
So, what about 2026? It started as usual on 1 January but by 31 December, we will all have got to grips with MTD for income tax, we may well be paying more tax under the Scottish Budget and a whole new raft of IHT planning reports will have been commissioned reflecting the latest changes to the IHT thresholds for Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR), now increased from £1m to £2.5m. Will this be the last change to IHT?
It’s going to be an interesting year.
I do not make New Year Resolutions, but I do plan for the year ahead. If you make plans, they go off course on Day 2, but then you adjust them for the new situation. But the important thing is to make plans. You are planning a journey. You may need to change your route to take account of traffic and unforeseen road works, but you have a destination that you want to reach.
So, where are you going this year? Get the roadmap out!
Alan E Long
The Long Partnership
07770 738770
