Any accountants around? When is the year end?

[saffy202]

I do the books for dh's business and I am confused on when his year end is? He started on 1st November last year. However we submitted the books on 31st March for the tax man.
I have been using Sage and had put the year end as 31st October 2006. Am I right in thinking that is should be 31st March 2007?
Any help please

Is he a sole trader or a limited company?

A sole trader

I think your year end can be whenever you say it is. Many businesses use 31 March or 5 April as that's also the end of the tax year, but you can equally use a different date (usually the end of a month). When you submitted your tax return, you would have had to tell them when your year end was. I don't think it's a problem to have a part year in your first year - eg. I started trading on 4 Sept, but my year end is 5 April to co-incide with the tax year. I don't use Sage though (am much less technical and just do it all in excel) so I don't know if you are tied in to what you've put there.

If he is a sole trader then he will be paying tax through self assesment and the year end will be the 5th April. Can't remember right now if the first period would be a short one (ie from November 1st 2005 until 5th April 2006) or a long one (ie from November 1st 2005 until 5th April 2007).

Sole traders always have their year end as being 5th April.

If he is a limited company then his year end would be 31st October. You can have a long or short first period, but as he started on 1st November, it makes sense for the year end to stay at 31st October.

As you submitted the books to the tax man at the end of March, then you shouldn't have any problems with tax.

HTH a bit (some of my knowledge on start-ups is a bit rusty ).

Thanks for your help.

It is so confusing
So what year end should I have put Sage as ending?
Also if I need to change the year end on Sage it is going to cost around £300 to ring the helpline and for them to change it, so I also have Quickbooks which I think I might get along with better so I am thinking I put the figures from 5th April 06 till April 07 onto Quickbooks as the taxman already has figures from Nov05 - March 06.... yes? no???