Tax compliance becomes stressful when deadlines are tracked separately by different people. A simple calendar gives the owner, accountant, and operations team one shared view.
Monthly Items
- Collect sales invoices and purchase invoices
- Import bank statements
- Reconcile bank and card accounts
- Review missing receipts
- Post payroll and owner transactions
- Check revenue against VAT and Corporate Tax planning thresholds
Quarterly or Periodic Items
- Prepare VAT return working papers
- Review input VAT claims
- File VAT201 before the deadline
- Confirm VAT payment
- Review Corporate Tax position and relief eligibility
Annual Items
- Close financial statements
- Prepare Corporate Tax return support
- Review licence renewal and registered details
- Update FTA records if ownership or contact details changed
- Archive records by year
The best tax calendar is boring. If every month closes cleanly, VAT and Corporate Tax deadlines become routine rather than urgent.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Most missed deadlines are not caused by one big failure. They come from tiny delays: invoices collected late, bank statements not imported, payroll posted after the close, and no single calendar owner.
Records to Keep Before You Decide or File
- Trade licence, ownership documents, FTA profile, and authorised signatory records
- VAT, Corporate Tax, accounting, payroll, and licence-renewal confirmations
- Year-by-year electronic archive of invoices, contracts, banks, and reports
- Open-items log showing what was requested, resolved, and still missing
Review Questions for the Owner
- Which deadlines apply to this licence and financial year?
- Who owns each compliance task before the due date arrives?
- Are records stored where the accountant and owner can retrieve them quickly?
- Has the FTA profile been updated after ownership, licence, or contact changes?
Mistakes That Make This Expensive
- Keeping important records only in WhatsApp chats or personal inboxes
- Tracking VAT, Corporate Tax, payroll, and licence dates in separate places
- Assuming an old clean filing means the next period will take care of itself
Practical Next Step
Set recurring monthly, quarterly, and annual compliance dates with an owner for each task. Review the calendar every month before documents go stale.
Keep a short working paper with the facts, dates, assumptions, and documents used. It makes future filing, review, or handover much easier.