The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) is to explore changing the end of the tax year from 5 April to either 31 March or the end of the calendar year.

Published in a document on 4 June, the OTS said they would be analysing the "benefits, costs and wider implications" of a change to the end of the tax year, as well as how a change could simplify the UK's tax system.

It was looking at the end of March as a potential date because it is "both the end of a calendar quarter and the nearest month end date to the end of the current tax year".

Many major tax regimes including the USA, France and Germany have a tax year end date of 31 December, a date that aligns with the end of the calendar year.

The UK tax year end date of 5 April is in place for historical reasons with the modern tax system having been built around this date, while modern accounting systems developed around quarter and month-ends.

The OTS will publish its findings later this summer.

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