P46(car) Reporting: 2 August 2026
Employers who provide company cars to employees or directors must report changes to HMRC using form P46(car). The deadline for the quarter ended 5 July 2026 is 2 August 2026, whether you submit electronically or on paper.
You need to submit a P46(car) when you provide a car to an employee for the first time, when you provide a replacement or additional car, or when a car is withdrawn and not replaced. The exception is where you payroll the benefit in kind through your payroll software, in which case the reporting happens in real time and a separate P46(car) is not required.
This is an area that is changing. Payrolling of benefits in kind is moving towards becoming mandatory, so employers who still rely on P11D reporting should be planning the transition rather than waiting for the deadline to force the issue. Full guidance is available in HMRC’s P46(car) guidance.
Employment Intermediaries Reporting: 5 August 2026
Agencies and other intermediaries that supply workers to end clients must file a quarterly report with HMRC where they have not operated PAYE on those workers. The report for the quarter ended 5 July 2026 is due by 5 August 2026.
The report must include details of each worker supplied, the payments made, and the reason PAYE was not applied. Reports are submitted online through HMRC’s employment intermediary service. The same date is also the deadline to remove a previously submitted report covering the quarter to 5 April 2026, if you need to withdraw it entirely rather than replace it.
Who this applies to
- Recruitment agencies placing contractors with end clients
- Umbrella companies in certain supply chain arrangements
- Any business that acts as the intermediary at the top of a labour supply chain
- Managed service providers supplying workers where PAYE is not operated
Penalties for late or incorrect reports start at £250 for a first offence and escalate to £500 and then £1,000 for subsequent failures within a twelve month period. Continued non compliance can result in a determination of the tax that should have been deducted. See HMRC’s employment intermediaries reporting guidance for the full requirements.
VAT Returns and Payments: 7 August 2026
The 7 August deadline covers both submission and payment for VAT periods ending 30 June 2026. That includes quarterly filers on the June, September, December, March stagger and businesses filing monthly returns.
The standard rule is that VAT returns and payments are due one calendar month and seven days after the end of the return period. If you pay by Direct Debit, HMRC takes the payment approximately three working days after the filing deadline, provided the return is submitted on time. Submitting late breaks the Direct Debit collection for that period, which then creates a late payment as well as a late submission.
The VAT penalty regime
The points based penalty system means every late submission earns a penalty point. Once you reach the threshold for your filing frequency, a £200 penalty applies and each further late submission triggers another £200. The thresholds are:
- Five points for monthly returns
- Four points for quarterly returns
- Two points for annual returns
Late payment penalties work separately. Nothing is charged if you pay within 15 days of the due date. Between 16 and 30 days, a penalty of 3 per cent of the outstanding amount applies. From day 31, that 3 per cent is charged again plus a further 10 per cent annualised penalty accruing daily until the balance is cleared. Late payment interest runs alongside these penalties from the day after the due date.
The VAT registration threshold remains £90,000 of taxable turnover on a rolling twelve month basis, with deregistration available at £88,000. Businesses approaching the threshold should be monitoring their rolling turnover monthly rather than annually. Full details are on the GOV.UK VAT returns page.
Making Tax Digital Quarterly Update: 7 August 2026
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax came into effect from 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000. Those in scope must keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC using compatible software.
The 7 August deadline relates to the quarterly update covering the period ended 30 June 2026, which for most taxpayers is the first quarterly submission under the new regime. Quarterly update deadlines fall one month and seven days after each quarter end, giving a standard pattern of 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May.
What a quarterly update involves
A quarterly update is a summary of income and expenses by category for the period. It is not a tax calculation and it does not require adjustments, reliefs or claims to be made at that stage. Those are handled at the year end through the final declaration, which replaces the traditional Self Assessment return for those within MTD.
If this is your first year in the regime, do not underestimate the shift in working habits. Businesses that previously did their bookkeeping once a year in January now need records maintained on a rolling basis. The businesses that cope best are those that reconciled their bank feeds weekly from April rather than trying to catch up in July. HMRC’s guidance is available at Using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
PAYE, NIC and CIS: 19 and 22 August 2026
Two dates apply here, and the one that matters depends on how you pay.
Employers paying by post must ensure cleared funds reach HMRC by 19 August 2026 for the tax month ended 5 August 2026. Employers paying electronically, which is the overwhelming majority, have until 22 August 2026. Because 22 August 2026 falls on a Saturday, electronic payments need to clear by Friday 21 August 2026.
Employers with average monthly liabilities below £1,500 can arrange to pay quarterly rather than monthly, which suits many small businesses with one or two employees. This must be agreed with HMRC in advance rather than assumed.
CIS returns
Contractors within the Construction Industry Scheme must file their monthly CIS return by 19 August 2026 covering payments made to subcontractors in the month to 5 August 2026. This deadline is fixed at 19 August regardless of payment method, so it does not shift to the 22nd for electronic filers.
A nil return is still required if you have made no payments to subcontractors in the month, unless you have told HMRC you expect no activity for a defined period. Late CIS returns attract an immediate £100 penalty, rising to £200 after two months, and then the greater of £300 or 5 per cent of the deductions after six months, with a further charge at twelve months. These penalties accumulate quickly and apply per return, so a contractor who forgets a nil return over the summer can face a meaningful bill by autumn. See GOV.UK guidance for CIS contractors.
Corporation Tax Returns: 31 August 2026
Companies with an accounting period ending 31 August 2025 must file their CT600 Corporation Tax return with HMRC by 31 August 2026. The filing deadline is twelve months after the end of the accounting period, which is three months after the payment deadline for the same period.
Late filing penalties begin at £100 as soon as the deadline passes, with a further £100 after three months. At six months HMRC estimates the liability and adds a penalty of 10 per cent of the unpaid tax, with another 10 per cent at twelve months. If a return is late three times in a row, the initial penalties increase to £500 each.
Remember that the CT600 is separate from your annual accounts filing at Companies House. Both must be dealt with, and the deadlines differ. Private limited companies generally have nine months from the accounting reference date to file accounts at Companies House, so a company with a 31 August 2025 year end would have needed to file accounts by 31 May 2026.
VAT Partial Exemption Annual Adjustment: 31 August 2026
Businesses that make both taxable and exempt supplies cannot reclaim all of their input VAT. Partial exemption rules determine how much can be recovered, and a calculation is performed each quarter using a provisional method. At the end of the partial exemption longer period, an annual adjustment recalculates the recoverable amount across the whole year and corrects any over or under recovery.
For businesses on the 31 May stagger, the annual adjustment falls due in this quarter, with 31 August 2026 as the relevant date. The adjustment can be made either on the return for the final period of the longer period or on the first return of the following period, and you should apply the same approach consistently.
Who is affected by partial exemption
- Property businesses with a mix of exempt rental income and taxable supplies
- Financial services and insurance intermediaries
- Education and training providers with mixed supplies
- Healthcare providers offering both exempt clinical and taxable cosmetic services
- Charities and not for profit organisations with trading arms
The de minimis limits allow full recovery of input VAT where exempt input tax is no more than £625 per month on average and no more than half of total input tax. Many smaller businesses fall within these limits and recover everything, but the position must still be tested annually. Detailed guidance is in VAT Notice 706.
Practical Tips for Managing August Deadlines
Summer compliance failures usually come down to absence rather than ignorance. The person who normally runs payroll is on annual leave, the director who signs off the VAT return is abroad, and nobody picks up the slack. A few practical steps make a real difference.
- Map holiday cover against the deadline calendar. Before signing off summer leave, check which compliance dates fall while key people are away and name a deputy in writing.
- Bring work forward rather than pushing it back. There is no penalty for filing a VAT return three weeks early. Submit before the holiday period rather than hoping to catch up afterwards.
- Set up Direct Debits where possible. VAT and PAYE can both be automated, which removes the risk of a payment being missed because nobody was in the office to authorise it.
- Allow for bank clearing times. Faster Payments are usually immediate, but BACS takes three working days and CHAPS has a same day cut off that is earlier than most people assume.
- Check your HMRC online account for messages. Notices of penalty, changes to payment references and PAYE code changes are all delivered digitally and are easy to miss over the summer.
- Diarise the following month too. September brings the next round of VAT and PAYE deadlines, and the run in to the January Self Assessment season starts sooner than most business owners expect.
Key Takeaways on Important Accounting Dates August 2026
August 2026 carries a full compliance load despite falling in the middle of the holiday season. The heaviest concentration of dates sits around the 7th for VAT and MTD, the 19th to 22nd for payroll and CIS, and the 31st for Corporation Tax returns and partial exemption adjustments.
The businesses that manage these months well are not the ones with the most sophisticated systems. They are the ones that plan around known absences, bring work forward where they can, and keep an eye on the calendar rather than reacting to it. Interest and penalties are entirely avoidable costs, and they are among the easiest savings any business can make.
If you would like support keeping on top of your filing obligations and payment deadlines, our team of accountants works with limited companies, sole traders, contractors and landlords across the UK to make sure nothing slips through the gaps.
