How to be financially prepared for the 2023/24 tax year
05/04/23
Now that we’ve reached the end of the 2022/23 tax year, it’s the perfect time to set out your financial plan for the year ahead. In fact, before any more deadlines catch up with you, there’s no time like the present to make sure you’re prepared for stability and success in 2023/24! At mgr, we like to make sure that our clients feel confident with how they manage their finances year on year, which is why we’ve compiled all our advice about how to be financially prepared for the year.
Predicting expenditure and planning a budget for the year
To start with, when assessing your finances for the coming months, it might be best to look back at the previous year. It’s likely that your expenditure from 2022/23 can give you a good idea of what you will be working with going forward, and how best to budget for this. By predicting your expenditure for 2023/24 based on the facts and figures from previous years, you’ll hopefully be setting yourself up for realistic success.
When planning your budget, it’s important to take into account any expected and unexpected changes that might take place in the next year. If you own a bar or restaurant, for example, you’ll be aware that the national living wage and national minimum wages increased recently on 1st April 2023. Bearing this in mind, it’s important to make sure your annual budget will be able to accommodate these changes. However, in the current cost of living crisis, there may be other unprecedented increases in items that are necessary for your business. With this in mind, your budget should be realistic to keep up with the increasing cost of living!
Making sure you have emergency savings
Part of life’s joy is its spontaneity and unexpectedness. That is, until a vital piece of equipment decides to break out of the blue. At times like this, you’ll be grateful to your past self for thinking to squirrel money away on a regular basis. Aside from this, if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that a pot of emergency savings will never go to waste. It’s a good idea to get into the habit of saving a set amount of money on a monthly basis, whether you’re responsible for a whole business, or simply managing your personal finances.
Preparing for taxes
It’s easy for tax deadlines to suddenly catch up with you if you’re not prepared, which may lead to you becoming lumbered with a fine! If you plan ahead, then you won’t be caught off-guard by any deadlines ahead. Alongside this, make sure to remain alert for any tax changes announced by HMRC in their sporadic updates throughout the year.
At the same time as making sure you’re paying enough tax, it’s also important to make sure you’re not paying too much! You may be eligible for a number of tax reliefs, and you haven’t realised yet. From creative industry tax reliefs, to Small Brewers Relief, there’s such a wide range of tax reliefs across all sectors. Make sure that you’re using those that apply to you.
Setting your financial goals
Finally, it’s important to establish what you want to achieve this year. How much do you want to increase turnover? How much profit would you like to make? How would you like to expand your business? This is the exciting part of making sure you’re financially prepared for the year ahead – working out your goals. Even if this is simply taking a pen and a notepad and writing a list of what you would like to achieve, it will be beneficial in the long run to remind yourself what you are working for throughout the year.
The above is general advice about financial planning. We strongly advise that you work with our team of experts when preparing for the year ahead. If you have any queries about this topic, please contact a member of the team directly on 020 7625 4545, or email info@mgr.co.uk.
Warning: The above is merely general guidance and should not be relied upon as formal advice. The advice we give to each client will depend on their specific circumstances. We suggest you take professional advice before taking any action in relation to the issues discussed above.
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