The UK tax year ends on 5 April. For many businesses, that’s one month away. Most finance teams are already drowning in audit prep, deadline anxiety, and the usual chaos of quarter-end closure. What often gets lost in the noise is proper tax planning — the one thing that actually moves the needle on your cash position.
Here’s what matters right now. And what doesn’t.
The Obvious Stuff (You’re Already Doing)
Yes, you need your accounts filed on time. Yes, Self Assessment deadlines matter. Yes, you need to sort out corporation tax provisioning. These are table stakes. Skip them and you’ve got problems with HMRC, not tax optimization. Assume your team is handling this. If they aren’t, that’s your first call this morning.
The interesting question isn’t whether you’ll meet the deadline. It’s whether you’re actually cutting your tax bill in a way that aligns with your business strategy.
The Stuff That Actually Matters
1. Capital Allowances and Plant & Machinery
Most CFOs claim the standard capital allowances. Some claim annual investment allowance (AIA) on purchases. Barely anyone does a proper Plant & Machinery claim.
Here’s the gap: items you’ve expensed as revenue (tools, equipment, fittings, IT hardware) might qualify for capital allowance relief instead. You get the deduction either way — but the timing and the amount can differ significantly, especially on large purchases or refits.
Better? A specialist P&M claim can sometimes find allowances on items you thought were already captured. That’s not double-dipping; that’s proper classification. The difference between a £5,000 expense and a £15,000 capital deduction is real money on your tax liability.
If you’ve done a lease-to-own arrangement, an office refit, or a significant equipment purchase in the last few years without a formal P&M claim, this is worth reviewing with a tax specialist. You’ve probably got a claim sitting on the table.
2. Trading Losses and Carry-Forward Relief
If you’ve had a loss-making year (or a prior year loss still on the books), HMRC wants you to use it. But how you use it matters for cash.
Current-year loss relief against other income? Fine for some businesses. Carry-back relief if your business has just started to turn around? Also viable. Carry-forward and use it when you’re profitable again? The classic move.
What I see go wrong: companies sit on losses because they don’t realize the options. They carry it forward passively and miss better relief strategies. If you’ve got losses, talking to someone about relief strategy before the return is filed saves weeks of grief later.
3. Director’s Salary and Dividend Planning
If you’re a close company (most SMEs are), the salary/dividend split isn’t just a compliance question. It’s a tax planning question, and 5 April is your last shot to adjust it for the current year.
National Insurance, income tax, corporation tax, and (if relevant) shareholder tax are all in the mix. There’s a well-known optimal point — roughly £9,100 salary if you’re a basic-rate taxpayer. But if you’ve got varying income sources, overlapping tax years, or shareholder considerations, the picture changes.
The thing nobody says out loud: most accountants optimize for simplicity (flat salary, flat dividend) rather than actual tax efficiency. If you’re a founder or owner-managed, and you’ve not looked at this deliberately in the last two years, you’re probably leaving money on the table.
4. Business Expenses You’ve Forgotten About
Legitimate business expenses save tax. Everyone knows this. What’s surprising is how many get forgotten simply because they’re not recurring or “obvious.”
Professional fees for tax or accounting advice? Deductible. Training or professional development for you or staff? Deductible. Pre-trading expenses if you’re setting up? Potentially deductible. Subscriptions, software, utilities for home office if properly calculated? Deductible.
The pattern I see: if an expense is small or irregular, it gets overlooked. Ten small oversights add up.
5. Timing of Income and Expenditure
December and March are chaos. Invoices arrive late. You’re not sure if something is for last year or this year. The temptation is to stick it in whatever box is most convenient.
Cash basis, accruals basis — both have implications. More importantly, the timing of receipt and payment actually matters for tax years. If you’ve got discretionary timing on a major receipt or payment, the few days before 5 April can change which year it falls into. That’s a one-year deferral on tax, which is real cash benefit.
This is a conversation to have with your accountant in the next week or two. Not after the accounts are filed.
6. IP, Intangible Assets, and R&D
If your business has developed software, systems, processes, or know-how, there are tax reliefs available that most founder-led teams don’t claim.
R&D tax relief? It’s generous and much broader than people think. It covers failed experiments, not just commercial breakthroughs. Enhanced patent box relief? It applies to the IP you’ve created. IP acquisition relief? If you’ve bought in expertise or patents, there are specific rules about deductibility.
These aren’t tricks. They’re reliefs Parliament built in to encourage innovation and investment. If you’re doing anything that could remotely be called R&D, not claiming it is leaving money on the table.
One More Thing: Adviser Timing
If you haven’t talked to a specialist tax adviser yet and 5 April is close, don’t assume you’re too late. A good 2-3 hour conversation now can surface planning options worth thousands.
The time wasted isn’t in filing the return. It’s in filing a return that’s compliant but not optimized, then realizing in June what you could have done. By then, the year is closed.
What to Do This Week
1. Ask your accountant if you’ve claimed all capital allowances and plant & machinery. If they hesitate, get a second opinion.
2. Check if you’ve got any unused losses and what relief strategy you’re using.
3. Review your salary and dividend split. Is it deliberate or default?
4. List the small, irregular expenses from the last three months. Did they get properly recorded?
5. If you’re doing anything innovate or developing IP, confirm you’re claiming available reliefs.
Tax compliance is non-negotiable. Tax planning is optional — which is exactly why so many businesses skip it. The ones that don’t tend to have fewer cash headaches.