Self Employed - Year End

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Hi,

Can someone give me advice on a year end date as I don't normally deal with self employed people.

Self employed plumber started his business 6th October 2007. He was previously employed from April - October 2007. He recieved a tax return earlier this year for 2007/08. Obviously 6 months earnings will be declared from his P60 and 6 months self employment. For ease - can he change his first year end to April 2008 so that I can calculate his self employed earning for half a year (Oct 07 -April 2008) and then when he gets his tax return for 2008/09 just do one full year of self employment. (April - March)

Can I do this and what, if any, are the drawbacks?

Thanks.

DaveP

You can indeed do that and it is probably the simplest option.

Only drawback really is that tax is paid on profits a little earlier than other financial year ends but this is no bad thing in my book - particularly for CIS/cash based businesses.