Small business checklist: Dates for your diary in 2022

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This content was last updated on 3 October 2022

Save time and get set for the year ahead with our must-read small business checklist for 2022. This guide includes all the deadlines and upcoming changes to legislation that you need to be aware of, including updates to the National Minimum Wage, payroll deadlines, and more.

Use the menu below to jump to each section of this guide.

• Tax deadlines
• Key dates for UK VAT
• National Minimum Wage and Statutory Rates
• Payroll deadlines
• Additional Bank Holidays for 2022
• National Insurance increase
• Upcoming changes to legislation

Tax deadlines

Sole traders

As a sole trader, you’ll pay your income tax and National Insurance liabilities in two stages, known as payments on account. These are payments in advance towards your tax bill.

• 31 January 2022 – balance of any tax for year 2020/21 was due
• 31 January 2022 - first payment on account of tax for year 2021/22 was due
• 31 July 2022 – second payment on account of tax for 2021/22 was due
• 31 January 2023 – balance of any tax for year 2021/22 is due
• 31 January 2023 - first payment on account of tax for year 2022/23 is due

Don’t forget, you can contact HMRC for Time to Pay or to set up a payment plan if you’re having difficulties. You have to pay interest if you pay late, so do this as soon as possible.

Self-Assessments

You must file your 2021-22 Self-Assessment Tax Return before:

• 31 October 2022 following the end of the tax year for a paper return.
• 31 January 2023 following the end of the tax year for an online return.

New to self-employment?

You must notify HMRC of the potential chargeability to tax & National Insurance Contributions by 5 October following the end of the tax year in which your business started. So, the deadline for the 2021-22 tax year is 5 October 2022.

New partner?

If a new partner has joined you in the 2021/22 tax year, you should notify HMRC by 5 October 2022.

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Key dates for UK VAT

31 March 2022: All VAT that was deferred in the period to June 2020 (under Covid reliefs; originally deferred to March 2021) must be paid in full.

1 April 2022: The temporary reduced rate of 12.5% for certain hospitality and attractions supplies (under Covid reliefs) will cease, making such supplies subject to standard-rate (20%) VAT again.

1 April 2022: UK VAT returns for periods starting on or after this date must be Making Tax Digital (MTD) compliant for all UK VAT registered businesses.

1 January 2023: UK VAT returns for periods starting on or after this date fall under the new penalty regime for late returns and/or payments.

Routine deadlines will vary depending on your VAT return period and whether you do quarterly, monthly or annual returns.

For example, if your business is on calendar quarters March/June/September/December, due dates for VAT return periods would be:

• VAT returns & associated payments are made by 7 May/7 Aug/7 Oct/7 Feb respectively
• Annual adjustments (if a partly exempt trader) are made on either the Mar or Jun returns (so 7 May or 7 Aug)

Since January 2022, the UK has required full customs controls for goods coming into mainland UK from the EU (although some controls, including certificates and physical checks on agri-foods and plant imports, have been postponed beyond 2022).

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National Minimum Wage and Statutory Rates

National Minimum Wage increase

The National Minimum Wage hourly rates increased on 1 April 2022 as follows:

• National Living Wage (23+) increased from £8.91 to £9.50
• National Minimum Wage (21-22) increased from £8.36 to £9.18
• National Minimum Wage (18-20) increased from £6.56 to £6.83
• National Minimum Wage (under 18) increased from £4.62 to £4.81
• The Apprenticeship Wage increased from £4.30 to £4.81

Statutory rate changes

The following statutory rate increases have applied since 3 April 2022:

• The weekly rate of statutory sick pay (SSP) is £99.35 (up from £96.35).
• The weekly rate of statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance, statutory paternity pay, statutory shared parental pay and statutory adoption pay is £156.66 (up from £151.97).
• The lower earnings limit increased from £120 to £123. To be entitled to these statutory payments, the employee’s average earnings must be equal to or more than the lower earnings limit.

Changes to Coronavirus SSP in the UK

• Reinstatement of waiting days for SSP

The standard three-day waiting time for paying statutory sick pay (SSP) has been reinstated for coronavirus-related SSP since 24 March 2022. Since 24 March, SSP has no longer been payable from day 1 for coronavirus-related absences.

• Closure of the Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate

The Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme for SME employers in the UK for SSP costs incurred for periods of incapacity due to coronavirus falling on or after 21 December 2021 until 17 March 2022, closed on 24 March 2022.  Employers have no longer been able to claim for a rebate of SSP for any period of coronavirus-related absence that occured after 17 March 2022. Employers had until 24 March 2022 to submit their final claims for a rebate.

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Payroll deadlines

When you’re managing a team, there are annual payroll reporting and payment deadlines that you need to remember. Find out more about your annual responsibilities with our payroll guide.

• 6 April 2022 – Update employee payroll records for the new tax year
• 19 April 2022 - Submit your final Full Payment Summary and Employer payment summary for the year ended 5 April 2022 and pay any tax/NIC due for the year.
• 31 May 2022 – give a P60 to all employees on your payroll who are working for you on the last day of the tax year
• 6 July 2022 – reporting of employee expenses and benefits
• 19 July 2022 – payment of Class 1A NICs by post, 22 July 2021 if paid electronically

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Additional Bank Holidays 2022

There was an additional Bank Holiday on Friday, 3 June 2022 for the Platinum Jubilee in 2022. The late May bank holiday was moved to Thursday, 2 June (from Monday, 30 May) for a four-day weekend.  A further additional Bank Holiday was also announced for Monday, 19 September 2022 for the Queen’s state funeral.

Do I have to give my employees the day off for additional Bank Holidays?

The legal position in relation to the additional bank holidays in 2022 is determined by the wording of your employee’s contract of employment. For example, where the contract entitles employees to take as paid leave "all bank and public holidays", rather than restricting this to the usual eight bank and public holidays in England and Wales, to avoid a breach of contract, you will be obliged to grant the additional bank holidays as paid holiday or negotiate otherwise with your employee.

You may choose to grant additional bank holidays as an extra day off on a discretionary basis, where your employee is not entitled to this as a paid holiday under their contract of employment.

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National Insurance increase

From April 2022, the government introduced a new, UK-wide 1.25% Health and Social Care Levy, ringfenced for health and social care, based on National Insurance Contributions (NICs). This means that employee and employer National Insurance contributions increase by 1.25% for the period 6 April 2022 to 6 November 2022. This change had been intended to last at least 12 months but the increase was repealed from 6 November 2022 by the mini-budget on the 23 September 2022. UK dividend tax also increases by this amount.

This increase in National Insurance contributions applies to:

• Class 1 (paid by employees)
• Class 4 (paid by self-employed)
• secondary Class 1, 1A and 1B (paid by employers)

The class you pay depends on your employment status and how much you earn. If you are working age and earn less than the National Insurance Primary Threshold or Lower Profits Limit you will pay nothing. Employers will only pay on earnings above the Secondary Threshold. This increase does not affect those over the State Pension age.

 

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Upcoming changes to legislation

Workplace sexual harassment

In response to a government consultation, the government has confirmed that it will introduce legislation creating a legal duty for employers in Great Britain to prevent sexual harassment and new protections from third-party harassment, “when parliamentary time allows”. A new statutory code of practice will be published to support the new legal duty to prevent sexual harassment. It is likely that this new duty, as well as protections from third party harassment, will apply subject to a defence that the employer took ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent its occurrence.

Currently, employers are under no proactive duty to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace under existing legislation. However, currently, if an incident has taken place and an individual makes a claim, an employer will potentially be liable unless it can show it took “all reasonable steps” to prevent the sexual harassment from occurring.

Repeal of the Regulations in England in relation to mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for health and social care workers

On 15 March 2022 regulations that made vaccination against COVID-19 a condition of deployment for health and social care staff (in both care homes and wider Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulated care services) in England were revoked and its provisions have no longer applied since that date.

End of protection from forfeiture, Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery (CRAR) under the Coronavirus Act 2020 (25 March 2022)

Under the Coronavirus Act 2020 and supporting legislation, businesses that had to remain closed during the pandemic, and were unable to pay rent on their commercial property as a result, were given protected from eviction via a process known as forfeiture.

In addition, the rules as to when a landlord could send bailiffs around to seize tenants’ goods (Exercising CRAR) were made much more restrictive. These protections are being ended.

New rules regarding how to deal with pandemic related rent arrears on commercial premises came in to force on 24 March 2022 under the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act.

The Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022 ringfences outstanding unpaid rent built up whilst businesses were closed during lockdowns.

Landlords should make allowances for ringfenced rent arrears from these specific forced periods of closure and share the financial impact with their tenants. An agreement should be sought between the parties and, if unsuccessful, there will be a legally binding arbitration process. The arbitration will be delivered by private arbitrators in accordance with guidelines to be set out in the legislation.

In addition, there is an amended “Code of Practice for Commercial Property Relationships Following the Covid-19 Pandemic” which will generally be expected to be adhered to during this process.

Restrictions on winding-up petitions - Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (31 March 2022)

Companies in financial distress because of the pandemic were protected from creditor action from June 2021 through the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020. This was to ensure that viable businesses affected by the restrictions on trading during the lockdown periods were not forced into insolvency unnecessarily. As the economy returned to normal trading conditions, the restrictions on creditor actions were lifted with effect from 31 March 2022.

Restriction of promotion of unhealthy foods in medium and large stores

Following consultation with industry, the government will restrict unhealthy food promotions in stores from October 2022. The Food (Promotion and Placement)(England) Regulations 2021 will require medium and large businesses, including those with 50 or more employees, to phase out their offering of multi-buy promotions such as ‘buy one get one free’ or ‘3 for 2’ offers on HFSS products.

However, On 14 May 2022, the government announced a one-year delay to the introduction of new rules restricting the multibuy deals of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products, including:

• Offering HFSS products as part of a volume price promotion (for example, "buy one get one free" or "3 for 2") either in-store or online
• Offering free in-store refills of certain non-pre-packaged sugar-sweetened drinks.

According to the government, the delay will allow time to review and monitor the impact of the restrictions on the cost of living in light of an "unprecedented global economic situation".  The relevant statutory instruments delaying these Regulations has yet to be published.

The Regulations also contain restrictions on placing and promoting HFSS products in certain key locations, such as checkouts, store entrances, aisle ends and their online equivalents. Despite criticism from the industry, the introduction of the placement restrictions is not being delayed, and these will come into force on 1 October 2022.

Data Protection and Digital Information Bill

The new Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (the Bill) is intended to make the UK’s data protection regime simpler for businesses, whilst keeping in place necessary protections for individual data subjects.  It has recently been introduced to parliament, so it is not known precisely how long it will take to pass through the parliamentary process, if at all, and in exactly what form it will emerge.  The second reading of the Bill was due to take place in the House of Commons on 5 September 2022, however, the leader of the Commons has stated that the government would instead allow ministers to consider the Bill further before there will be any further progress.  It is not clear whether this legislation will now be a priority.

However, we are able to take a look at its current provisions as drafted, and it is advisable for all businesses to keep an eye on developments in this regard.  Of course, before it actually is implemented, the government, via the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), will issue further detailed guidance to businesses and the general public if and when it is appropriate to do so.

As stated, the government’s intention with the Bill is to update and simplify the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 with a view to hopefully, reducing the current burdens on organisations, whilst still maintaining high data protection standards for data subjects. Whether this will be successful remains to be seen, as this is a very complex area of the law for most businesses.  The Bill intends to create more flexibility by making various provisions regarding personal data and other information, including digital information. These include (but are not limited to) the following:

•  A potential new and possibly narrower definition of personal data.
• Replacing Data Protection Officers, when required, with Senior Responsible Individuals, and tweaking what these are responsible for.
• Reforming the ICO, the UK’s independent authority empowered to uphold individuals’ data protection rights.
• Changes to the rules relating to internet cookies, unsolicited direct marketing and the security of communications.
• Reconsidering “legitimate interests” as a lawful basis for processing personal data and how this is to be applied.
• Clarification of the confusing rules on international transfers and cross-border flows of personal data.
• Establishing a new framework for the provision of digital verification services.

The Department of Culture Media and Sport has stated that “organisations currently compliant with the GDPR would not need to significantly change their approach”, however, we will not know the exact details until the Bill passes through parliament and comes into force.