OTS explores moving the end of the tax year

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

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.

The OTS is 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 end".

Many major tax regimes including the USA, France and Germany have a tax year end date of 31 December, and this is another option.

The UK tax year end date of April 5 arose for historical reasons with the modern tax system having been built around this date, whilst modern accounting systems have developed around quarter end month-ends.

The OTS should publish its findings later this summer.