Change your tax year

How your accounting start date works and how to change it if needed in Sage Sole Trader.

Sage Sole Trader always aligns your accounting period with the tax year (6 April to 5 April).

You can’t set a different financial year, such as 1 April to 31 March. Any changes you make must stay within HMRC’s rules for the tax year.

Here's how it works:

• If you set up your account between 6 April and 31 December, your start date is 6 April of the current calendar year
• If you set up your account between 1 January and 5 April, your start date is 6 April of the previous calendar year

Before you start

If you need to change your accounting start date, follow these guidelines to find out what your options are:

Current date	Change conditions
Between 6 April and 31 December	You can change the start date to 6 April of the previous calendar year.
Between 1 January and 31 January	You can set the start date back to 6 April of the last two calendar years.
Between 1 February and 5 April	Changes to a previous tax year aren’t possible due to the submission deadline for that tax year.

You can only change the start date to a 6 April date. You can’t set a company-style financial year.

If you change from the current tax year to the previous one, you can’t change back later.

This prevents discrepancies because the start date must match your recorded transactions.

Change your tax year

1. Go to Sole Trader.
2. From Settings select Tax year.
3. Select the relevant tax year from the dropdown. 
4. In the pop-up window, confirm you want to change the tax year. 
   
5. Select Save.

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Resolve errors

There are several reasons why you can't change your tax year:

• The submission deadline has passed
• You’re already using this tax year
• You’ve recorded a bank opening balance. Find out how to Delete your bank opening balance