What should our financial year end be?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: covered, and different in a way worth naming even though the detail sits elsewhere. Scottish threshold rules attach to the year’s start, not its end — a genuine divergence from England and Wales that the money hub owns and explains in full. Northern Ireland: covered — no Northern Ireland threshold changed, so only the SORP’s start-date rule is in play; the money hub owns the detail.

Why the year end is a decision, not a default

Choose your first financial year end at a board meeting, ideally when you hold your first board meeting. The date decides which accounting rules apply first. It also decides when your first annual report and accounts fall due.

That holds for trustees in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. But Scottish threshold rules attach to the year’s start, not its end. The consequences run for years, not months. It is far easier to choose well now than to change it later.

The year end looks like an admin detail, and there is no single obvious moment to decide it. That is why it tends to be left to default rather than chosen.

How the year end decides which rules apply

Where your year end falls changes which rules test you, and when. Charitable status is measured against your gross income at a particular time. It is tested continuously, not at a fixed period end. The reporting hub’s step to work out your financial period and your first-year deadlines turns the date into filing dates.

Why the choice matters more this year

This year adds a further reason to choose carefully.

More than one set of accounting rules is changing during 2026. They do not all take effect on the same date. Nor do they all attach to the year in the same way.

The rules for your charity’s first accounts can depend on where your year end falls against those changes. They do not depend only on your income.

The detail of which thresholds move, and when, is in the money hub’s step to determine which accounts to prepare. That page owns this table and keeps it current. A copy here would drift out of step with the version that matters.

A charitable company’s year end, already fixed

If your charity is a company, the accounting reference date was already set when you incorporated at Companies House.

This page shows what that earlier decision now costs or saves you. It also asks whether you would still choose that date, knowing what you know now. A charitable company can change it, within limits. The money hub’s step to set your financial year end covers that decision, not this page.

With the date chosen, the next step is to build your first-year calendar.

Common mistake: letting the year end default rather than choosing it

It looks like an admin detail, and there is no obvious moment to decide it. The date decides which rules apply to the first set of accounts and when everything falls due. The consequences run for years. It is far easier to choose well now than to change it later.

Worked example

Tollgate Youth CIO registers partway through the calendar year. Unlike a company, it has no earlier incorporation date to inherit an accounting reference date from.

At its first board meeting, the trustees choose a year end on purpose. They do not let the date default to whatever the registration paperwork produces. Next, the trustees read the money hub’s coverage. They check whether a longer or shorter first period sits better with the accounting rules already in play this year.