Our new tax year always starts in April. Have you ever wondered why? We have to look back to the reign of Henry VIII and the English Reformation to find the reason .
In 1582 (during Elizabeth I’s reign) Europe changed to a new calendar (Gregorian) which drops a leap year every Century. The UK, however, not recognising the authority of the Catholic Church in England ignored this and carried on with the Julian Calendar.
For the next 170 years there existed a difference of at least 10 days between the calendar in Britain and that used in the rest of Europe. By 1752 Britain was 11 days out of step with Europe and it was decided to align ourselves with Europe and move New Year’s Day. The problem was we would have to drop 11 days from our calendar. It was decided that 1752 would be an unusual year and September was to be the unusual month. The 2nd September was immediately followed by 14 September but the English people were not happy. They believed they were being robbed of 11 days and took to the streets in protest. Their taxes were also to be adjusted and they were expected to pay a full year’s tax even though the year would only have 354 days. The Treasury did not want to lose any tax revenue and they decided that the tax year would still be 365 days. In order to keep the peace it was decided that the beginning of the following tax year was moved from 25 March to 5 April.
Another twist in this tale came in 1800 when the Treasury realised it was a leap year in 1800 for the Julian calendar whereas it was not under the new Gregorian calendar. Thus 1800 was a leap year for tax purposes but not for the purpose of the calendar and so the tax year start was moved on again by a single day to 6 April. So from then on until the present day our tax year begins on 6th April every year.
