Mungo
Member
In the UK the tax year for personal taxation runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year, rather than the more sensible January 1st to December 31st.
Why is this?
There are two reasons why this has happened.
Firstly the Calendar year used to run from the feast of the Annunciation on 25th March.*
It only changed to the 1st January in 1752. One source I read says this caused historians no end of problems because, for example, Dec 31 1730 would be followed by January 1st 1730 and not 1731. March 24th 1730 would be followed by March 25th 1731. Very confusing.
Therefore the tax year for personal taxation ran from March 25th to the following March 24th.
Before 1752 the Julian Calendar was used. This brought into use by Julius Caesar in 45BC. But this differed from the solar calendar by 11.5 mins. Not a lot but in time the difference built up and by the late 16th century was 10 days out. Pope Gregory XIII devised a new calendar which was widely adopted in by Europe in 1582 and advanced the calendar by 10 days
However is was not initially adopted in the UK and only finally adopted here in 1752 by which time the drift was 11 days. So 11 days were added the date and Wednesday 2nd September was followed by Thursday 14th September. But the Treasury decided that the full 365 days of tax should be paid and so moved the date of the tax year from 25th March to April 4th in the following year (to be followed by a new tax year starting on 5th April). This went well until 1800. But this was not a leap year as it would have been under the old Julian calendar. So the Treasury moved the date on the end of the tax year to 5th April and it has stayed there ever since.
*See Historical Curiosities - The Four Seasons for how much of our Calendar was governed by Liturgical dates.
Why is this?
There are two reasons why this has happened.
Firstly the Calendar year used to run from the feast of the Annunciation on 25th March.*
It only changed to the 1st January in 1752. One source I read says this caused historians no end of problems because, for example, Dec 31 1730 would be followed by January 1st 1730 and not 1731. March 24th 1730 would be followed by March 25th 1731. Very confusing.
Therefore the tax year for personal taxation ran from March 25th to the following March 24th.
Before 1752 the Julian Calendar was used. This brought into use by Julius Caesar in 45BC. But this differed from the solar calendar by 11.5 mins. Not a lot but in time the difference built up and by the late 16th century was 10 days out. Pope Gregory XIII devised a new calendar which was widely adopted in by Europe in 1582 and advanced the calendar by 10 days
However is was not initially adopted in the UK and only finally adopted here in 1752 by which time the drift was 11 days. So 11 days were added the date and Wednesday 2nd September was followed by Thursday 14th September. But the Treasury decided that the full 365 days of tax should be paid and so moved the date of the tax year from 25th March to April 4th in the following year (to be followed by a new tax year starting on 5th April). This went well until 1800. But this was not a leap year as it would have been under the old Julian calendar. So the Treasury moved the date on the end of the tax year to 5th April and it has stayed there ever since.
*See Historical Curiosities - The Four Seasons for how much of our Calendar was governed by Liturgical dates.