"We are switching accountants in November. Our year end is 31 March and our VAT quarters run to December. Does the new firm restart our VAT quarters, and will our year end move?"
No, neither changes. Your VAT periods and your accounting reference date belong to the business, not to the firm preparing the returns. The VAT number stays, the quarter ends stay, and the year end stays. What changes is who prepares the returns, who is authorised to file them, and where the cut-off falls inside the current quarter.
The complications are all in the timing. Here is what to settle before you sign anything.
Do your VAT quarters change when you switch accountants?
No. Your VAT periods are set when you register, not when you change adviser. A registered business makes returns for prescribed accounting periods, which are ordinarily quarterly. That is regulation 25 of the VAT Regulations 1995, and it has nothing to do with who prepares the return.
HMRC allocates your business to a stagger group at registration. The group decides which months your quarters end. The standard patterns run like this, and your VAT online account shows the exact dates that apply to you.
| Stagger | Quarter ends | Return and payment deadline |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 March, 30 June, 30 September, 31 December | 7 May, 7 August, 7 November, 7 February |
| 2 | 30 April, 31 July, 31 October, 31 January | 7 June, 7 September, 7 December, 7 March |
| 3 | 31 May, 31 August, 30 November, 28 or 29 February | 7 July, 7 October, 7 January, 7 April |
The legal deadline is the last day of the month after the period ends. Online returns get an extra seven days, which puts the practical deadline on the 7th of the second month. It applies to the return and to the payment, and it does not move for a weekend or bank holiday.
Your stagger can be amended through HMRC's VAT View and Change service, but a change of accountant is not a reason to move it. If your quarter genuinely does not fit your trading pattern, ask HMRC. Do not assume the switch resets anything.
The same logic applies if you are on monthly returns or the Annual Accounting Scheme. Monthly returns stay monthly. Annual Accounting gives you one return a year, due two months after the end of your accounting period, with advance payments at months 4 to 12 or 4, 7 and 10. A new adviser inherits the scheme and the dates.
Does your year end change when you switch accountants?
No. Your accounting reference date is fixed at incorporation and then falls on the same date each year. For a new company, the first accounting reference date is the last day of the month in which the first anniversary of incorporation falls. A company incorporated on 6 April 2025 has an ARD of 30 April 2026, then 30 April every year after that.
Changing accountant does not touch it. There is nothing to file at Companies House because you have changed firm.
What the year end drives is the deadline set:
| Deadline | The rule | Example, 31 March 2027 year end |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts to Companies House | 9 months after the accounting reference date | 31 December 2027 |
| Corporation Tax payment | 9 months and 1 day after the end of the accounting period | 1 January 2028 |
| Company Tax Return | 12 months after the end of the accounting period | 31 March 2028 |
You can make your accounts up to seven days either side of the ARD, but that flexibility sits inside the year, not in the date.
You can change the ARD itself, but that is a separate decision with its own rules. Shortening is allowed as often as you like at the moment, although the plan is to require a business reason from 1 April 2028 if you shorten more than once in five years. Extending is tighter: a period cannot run longer than 18 months, and you can only extend more than once in five years in limited cases, such as aligning with a parent or subsidiary. The application must be made before the filing deadline for the accounts for that period. If the accounts are already overdue, it is too late.
There is a tax consequence that catches people out. A Corporation Tax accounting period cannot be longer than 12 months. If you lengthen your financial year beyond that, you file two Company Tax Returns to cover the accounts period. A new accountant who wants a different year end is creating work, not saving it.
What actually changes on the day you switch?
Three things, and none of them are your VAT quarters.
Authorisations. Your new firm cannot file anything until it is authorised for each tax. For VAT, authorisation runs through HMRC's digital handshake. For Corporation Tax, PAYE and Self Assessment, it can be done online or with form 64-8. Authorisation is per tax, so a firm authorised for VAT is not automatically authorised for PAYE.
When the new authorisation is accepted, it replaces the old one. The part founders miss is the phone and post. Removing a VAT agent online does not stop the old firm dealing with HMRC in writing or by phone. To end that, you also need to contact HMRC by post or phone. Do it, or you will spend the next quarter wondering why two firms are answering the same letter.
Payroll. If the old firm ran payroll, the new one needs PAYE authorisation before the next payday. A Full Payment Submission is due on or before the date you pay employees, and the PAYE bill is due by the 22nd of the following month, or the 19th if you pay by post. A handover that lands on payday is a handover that misses the FPS.
Software ownership. The ledger should belong to the company, not the firm. If your Xero or QuickBooks subscription sits in the old firm's account, transfer it before the handover date. The same goes for the connectors that pull in TikTok Shop, Amazon and Shopify settlements. Access being cut off is not a technical problem. It is a records problem.
What happens if you switch in the middle of a VAT quarter?
The quarter carries on. The question is who prepares which part of it, and that is a contract question, not a tax question.
Take an illustrative example. A brand with a 31 December quarter end hands over on 15 November. The quarter runs from 1 October to 31 December. The old firm's last full quarter ended on 30 September, and that return was due on 7 November. The new firm's first return is the December quarter, due 7 February.
The September quarter return is already overdue when the new firm arrives. The December quarter is already six weeks old. If nobody writes down who is filing what, both returns become the new firm's problem, or neither does.
The clean approach is a written cut-off:
Option one, cut at the quarter end. The old firm prepares and files the return to 30 September, and hands over on 1 October. The new firm starts with a clean quarter. This is the least dramatic option and usually worth a small fee to the old firm.
Option two, cut mid-quarter. The new firm takes responsibility from an agreed date, say 15 November, and prepares the whole December quarter. That means it needs October records too, even though it was not appointed. Bank statements, platform payout reports, sales and purchase invoices, and the VAT account all have to come from the start of the period, not from the handover date.
Option two is fine if the records are clean. It is a bad idea if the old firm has not reconciled the quarter at all, because the new firm inherits an unknown opening position and a deadline twelve weeks away.
One more number to fix in the handover letter: the VAT liability already building in the current quarter. On an illustrative quarter with £600,000 of net sales, output VAT at 20% is £120,000. If input VAT is £78,000, the bill is £42,000, due on the normal deadline. That cash does not wait for the handover to finish. Make sure somebody owns it.
What must the old accountant hand over?
Your accounting records. Not a summary, not a PDF of the management accounts: the records the company is legally required to keep. A lien cannot be asserted over accounting records as defined in section 386 of the Companies Act 2006, and it cannot be asserted over statutory books such as the register of members or the minute book. Those are not bargaining chips.
Working papers are different. The firm may own its own files, and it can have a particular lien over some documents where fees for work on those documents are unpaid. The practical answer is the same either way: settle the final bill. Do not use it as a reason to delay the handover, because the delay costs more than the fee.
Before any of that, the new firm should carry out a professional enquiry. Under the ICAEW Code of Ethics, section 320, it asks your permission to contact the old firm, writes to ask whether there is anything that should affect the decision to accept the appointment, and the old firm must respond promptly. Outstanding fees are not a reason to refuse to respond. If there is no reply, the new firm should chase, then write by recorded delivery and allow a reasonable period, which is unlikely to be less than two weeks.
Professional clearance is a misleading name. The old firm cannot give or withhold permission for you to leave. It can only tell the new firm what it needs to know. If you are still choosing between a specialist and a generalist, the comparison of the two covers that decision.
The records pack should include:
Statutory accounts and Company Tax Returns for the last three years. The trial balance at the handover date. The fixed asset register. VAT returns and workings for the last four years. Payroll records and the P11D position. Platform reconciliation files for TikTok Shop, Amazon and Shopify. HMRC correspondence. Finance agreements, leases and intercompany balances. The director's loan account position.
Ask for the last one in writing. A director's loan account still overdrawn nine months after the year end is not a rounding difference. It triggers a section 455 charge at 35.75% on loans made from 6 April 2026. It needs to be in the opening position, not discovered in month three.
What should you fix before the handover date?
Reconcile the current VAT quarter to the platform statements. Not to the bank account, to the settlement reports. If the old firm has been posting gross sales and a single payout, the new firm will spend its first month rebuilding the sales ledger. The repair order is in our guide to ecommerce accounts an accountant got wrong.
Agree the stock figure. If the year end has passed and the stock take was never signed off, do it before the handover. A new accountant inheriting an unsupported stock number will have to redo the count or ask you to sign off the estimate.
Clear the director's loan account or document the repayment plan. Agree the intercompany position. Get the fixed asset register and the finance agreements. Close the prior year and file anything outstanding, because a handover on top of an overdue return is two problems, not one.
Check the software. Who owns the subscription, who holds the bank feed, and who has the A2X or Link My Books connection? Move all three before access is cut.
Finally, avoid the eight weeks before a filing deadline. A handover in the middle of a year-end crunch is how a clean set of books becomes a two-month reconstruction. If the accounts are due in eight weeks, wait until they are filed.
What does a dated handover checklist look like?
| When | What | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days before | Agree the handover date and who files which return | Stops two firms filing the same period, or neither filing it |
| 14 days before | Professional enquiry, new authorisations, remove the old ones | The new firm cannot file until it is authorised |
| 7 days before | Records pack, software ownership, bank feeds | The new firm starts with source data, not a summary |
| Handover day | Final bill, written cut-off, list of open items | Unpaid fees create lien risk on working papers, not on accounting records |
| 14 days after | First reconciliation to platform payouts | Catches a broken opening balance before the first return |
When should you wait until after the year end?
If the accounts are due within eight weeks, or a VAT return is due within two, wait. The cost of a messy handover is a late filing penalty, a reconstruction bill, or both.
Wait too if there is an open HMRC compliance check. Moving mid-check splits the history between two firms and makes the response slower. Close it, or get the new firm to agree in writing that it will take it on.
Moving because the work has outgrown the firm is a different decision from moving because one return was late. The seven signs that you have outgrown your accountant are a better test than a single deadline.
And wait if the old firm holds the only copy of anything. Records belong to the company, but possession is nine tenths of a handover.
FAQs
Do I need to tell HMRC that I have changed accountant?
You do not send a letter saying so. The new firm's authorisation replaces the old one for each tax. For VAT, that runs through the digital handshake. If you want the old firm to stop dealing with HMRC by phone or post as well as online, you must also remove that authority by post or phone.
Can my old accountant withhold my records until I pay?
Not the accounting records the company is required to keep. A lien cannot be asserted over accounting records under section 386 of the Companies Act 2006, or over statutory books. The firm may have a lien over some working papers where its fees for that work are unpaid. Pay the final bill and ask for the records pack in writing.
Can I change my year end at the same time as switching?
Yes, but treat it as a separate project. You change the accounting reference date with Companies House. If the change alters your Corporation Tax accounting period, you also need to update those dates with HMRC before the original filing date. The current or previous period can be shortened or extended, an extended period cannot exceed 18 months, and a financial year longer than 12 months means two Company Tax Returns. Do it because the business needs it, not because the new firm prefers a different month.
The Close
A mid-year switch is not a reset. Your VAT quarters keep running, your year end stays where it is, and the tax already building in the current quarter still has to be paid on the normal date.
The firms that get this right do three things: they pick a cut-off and write it down, they move the records and the software before access is cut, and they settle the final bill. The firms that get it wrong spend the first quarter reconstructing someone else's work and the second quarter explaining why the first return was late.
If you are planning a switch and want the handover checked before you commit, book a call.