Tax registrations
Which tax registrations apply to your business and when each one becomes mandatory.
Articles
Registering for Self Assessment
When sole traders and landlords must register for Self Assessment with HMRC, and how to do it.
VAT registration basics for new businesses
When new businesses must register for VAT, when voluntary registration helps, and how to plan for it.
Which registrations, in which order
Sole trader: register for Self Assessment — by 5 October after the end of your first tax year, and sooner in practice. Limited company: incorporation registers you at Companies House automatically, HMRC opens a Corporation Tax record, and you must tell HMRC the company is active within three months of starting to trade.
Then the conditional layer: PAYE registration before the first payday if anyone — including a sole director — is paid a salary; VAT when the rolling £90,000 threshold approaches, or voluntarily before; and the Construction Industry Scheme if you are in construction, as contractor or subcontractor.
The ones people miss
The 5 October Self Assessment deadline is the classic first-year miss — a side project that started in spring quietly becomes a registration obligation eighteen months before its first tax bill. PAYE is the second: a company paying its director a salary needs a payroll scheme before the first payment, not at year end.
VAT is the third, by drift: the rolling twelve-month test creeps past £90,000 mid-year while everyone watches the accounting year instead. Put a monthly check on rolling turnover from day one.
What each registration commits you to
Every registration starts a filing rhythm: Self Assessment means an annual return and January payments; Corporation Tax means accounts, a CT600, and a payment date; PAYE means real-time submissions every payday; VAT means digital records and a return every period. Register for what you need — no more, no sooner than needed, but never later.
Registering late is penalty territory in every case; registering for things you do not need is standing admin. The skill is sequencing, and it is precisely what we set up for new-business clients in the first month.
Set up the money side on day one
Open the business bank account before trading. Start digital bookkeeping from the first transaction — MTD-ready software from day one costs the same as starting badly. And ring-fence tax as you earn: a fixed percentage of every receipt into a separate account means the first tax bills of each kind arrive pre-funded.
The first-year businesses that struggle are almost never the ones that chose the wrong software; they are the ones that spent the tax.
Frequently asked questions
When must I register as self-employed?
By 5 October following the end of the tax year in which you started — but register promptly once trading is real: it starts your National Insurance record, enables Class 2 credits, and removes the deadline risk entirely.
Do I need PAYE if I'm the only person in my company?
If the company pays you a salary, yes — a PAYE scheme with RTI submissions on or before each payment, even for one director on a modest wage. If you take only dividends and no salary, no scheme is needed — though a small salary is usually worth having.
Should I register for VAT from the start?
Only with a reason: business customers who recover VAT, zero-rated sales, or meaningful input VAT to reclaim. Selling to the public below the threshold, registration usually just raises your prices. It is a numbers decision — run it, don't default it.
I started trading months ago and haven't registered anything. How bad?
Fixable, and better fixed now. Register for Self Assessment (or activate the company with HMRC), catch up any PAYE position, and check the rolling VAT test historically. Penalties scale with delay and behaviour — prompt voluntary regularisation sits at the cheap end.