Small business calendar 2026 - the deadlines and changes to UK law that founders need to know

We’ve put together the finance and tax deadlines you need to know for 2026, plus the biggest changes to UK law.

UK law changes 2026

Employment Rights Act 2025

In December 2025, the Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent, with changes coming into effect in phases throughout 2026 and 2027.

Changes from April 2026 include:

• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) reform: the Act makes SSP payable from the first day of illness, not the fourth
• ‘Day 1’ rights to paternity leave and parental leave: employees will be able to claim paternity and ordinary parental leave from the first day of employment
• Bereavement leave: the Act creates a more generous “bereavement leave” than existing parental leave which will apply to a wider range of people. 
• Gender pay gap and menopause action: while this is set to take effect in 2027, employers can voluntarily start taking action from April 2026
• Whistleblowing protections: if an employee makes a sexual harassment disclosure, they will be protected from unfair dismissal

From October 2026, the following changes are set to come into effect:

• Employment tribunal time limit extension: employees can make a claim to an employment tribunal for up to six months within six months, up from three months
• Harassment: employers will be liable for harassment from third parties, such as clients or customers, unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent this from happening
• Tipping laws are set to tighten
• Trade unions: employers will have a duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union, and employees will have more protection from detriments to taking industrial action

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) reform

As of April 2026, SSP will be payable to employees from the first day of illness instead of the fourth, and must be covered by the employer. The rate of SSP is also set to increase from £118.75 per week to £123.25 per week, with any sick leave less than a week paid on a pro-rata basis.

The Act also removes the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL), meaning employees are entitled to SSP irrespective of their income. Prior to April 2026, employees had to be earning at least £125 to receive SSP, meaning that approximately 1.3 million workers received no financial support from their employer when unwell. With this limit removed, employees can now get support irrespective of their income.

National Minimum Wage

As of 1 April 2026, National Minimum Wage rates are set to increase, with the hourly wage rates becoming for the following age brackets:

• 21+ – from £12.21 to £12.71
• 18-20 – from £10 to £10.85
• 16-17 – from £7.55 to £8
• Apprentice rate – from £7.55 to £8
• Accommodation offset – from £10.66 to £11.10

Data protection law updates 2026

Introduced in 2025, the Data Use and Access Act (DUAA) amends but doesn’t replace the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

According to the ICO, the DUAA can help businesses innovate through:

• Research provisions, where the Act clarifies when you can use personal information for research purposes
• Privacy notices that allow users that you can re-use people’s information to research without giving a privacy notice if it would involve disproportionate effort. The key is to make sure you’re protecting your customers’ rights in other ways, and you’ll still need to explain what you’re doing by publishing a notice on your website
• Automated decision-making opens up the full range of reasons, or ‘lawful bases’, that you can rely on when you use people’s personal information to make automated decisions – so long as you use the appropriate safeguards.
• Cookie rules now allow you to set some types of cookies where you don’t need to get consent

There are also a few new requirements to be met:

• Content for children: if you’re providing a service that’s likely to be used by children, you’ll need to take their needs into account when deciding how to use their information. If you conform to the Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC), you should already meet this requirement.
• Data protection complaints: if someone wants to make a complaint about how you use their personal information, you’ll need to take steps to help people do this, such as providing an electronic complaints form. You must also acknowledge complaints within 30 days and respond ‘without undue delay.’

UK law changes coming in 2027

While 2027 is still a while away, there are already a few things in the pipeline that you’ll need to know.

Fire and rehire protections

From January 2027, employees will be protected from ‘unscrupulous’ fire and rehire practices under the Employment Rights Act 2025. These practices often involve firing an employee before rehiring them under a new contract, often with less favourable terms and conditions.

When commenced, the act will automatically treat the act of firing and rehiring an employee, or firing an employee and replacing them with the intention to change the core terms of the employment contract, as unfair dismissal.

Changes to zero hour contract laws

As of January 2027, employers will need to offer employees on zero hour contracts guaranteed hours at the end of every reference period, reflective of the hours worked in said period. The length of this reference period is yet to be determined, but it’s anticipated to be 12 weeks.

To accommodate this, employers will need to offer to vary the employee’s existing terms to guarantee these hours, or otherwise issue a new contract. If a new contract is issued and the hours are changed, then any other terms that are changed must not be less favourable than before.

Tax and accounting thresholds and deadlines

VAT

VAT (Value Added Tax) is a consumption tax added to most goods and services in the UK, with the amount of VAT charged varying depending on the item.

For most businesses, VAT registration is mandatory after taxable turnover exceeds £90,000, and you can only deregister if your turnover falls below £88,000. These VAT thresholds are set to stand until 2026, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer may choose to adjust them in the Spring Budget. Rest assured that if anything changes, we’ll let you know.

If your business passes the £90,000 threshold, you’ll need to register for VAT with HMRC within 30 days from the end of the month. That means that if your taxable turnover exceeds this amount on 15 June 2026, you’ll have until 30 July 2026 to register for VAT.

When you file your VAT return depends on when your company’s VAT return period and whether you submit quarterly, monthly or annual returns. Quarterly VAT returns are typically filed and due one calendar month and seven days after the end of an accounting period.

For example, if your business submits quarterly in March, June, September and December, the dates you need to file and pay will be 7 May, 7 August, 7 October and 7 February for your VAT returns and payments. And for annual adjustments, these will be due on either the March or June returns – so that’s 7 May or 7 August.

PAYE

The standard employee personal allowance for 2026/27 is set to be:

• £242 per week
• £1,048 per month
• £12,570

The Income Tax rates for employees in England, Northern Ireland and Wales are as follows:

• Basic tax rate (20%) – from £12,571 to £50,270
• Higher tax rate (40%) – from £50,271 to £125,140
• Additional tax rate (45%) – above £125,140

These rates have been frozen until April 2028.

Dividends

As of 6 April 2026, the dividend tax rate is set to increase to the following:

• Ordinary rate (applied to £12,571 to £50,270 in dividends) increases to 10.75% from 8.75%
• Upper rate (applied to £50,271 to £125,140 in dividends) increases to 35.75% from 33.75
• Additional rate (applied to over £125,140 in dividends) stays the same at 39.35%

Your tax-free dividend allowance will also remain at £500.

PAYE deadlines for staff on your payroll

If you have workers on your company payroll, there are some important PAYE deadlines to remember. As an employer, you’re responsible for deducting Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from your employees’ pay, and passing this on to HMRC.

Update employee payroll records by 6 April 2026

You’ll need to update employee payroll records for all employees working for you at the start of the 2026/27 tax year. On 6 April, you must:

• Prepare a payroll record
• Identify the correct tax code for the new tax year
• Enter their tax code in your payroll software.

You can find out more about payroll annual reporting at GOV.UK.

Pay your PAYE bill monthly or quarterly

You’ll need to make your PAYE payments online on the 22nd of the next tax month if you pay monthly, and if you pay quarterly, by the 22nd of the month after the quarter ends – for example, for the 06 April to 05 July quarter, the deadline is 22 July. If you’re late paying, you might have to pay interest and a penalty.

Send employees their P60s by 31 May 2026

After the end of the tax year (5 April), you must issue P60 forms to each employee by 31 May. And whenever an employee leaves, you’ll need to give them their P45.

Send HMRC P11D forms by 6 July 2026

If you give your employees benefits such as childcare vouchers, interest-free loans or a company car, you’ll need to send HMRC P11D forms. They’re due every year by 6 July.

National Insurance Contributions (NICs)

Since April 2024, Class 1 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) have been the following:

• Employee main rate (on earnings up to £50,270): 8%
• Employee upper rate (on earnings above £50,270): 2%

Employers must pay Class 1A and 1B National Insurance on expenses and benefits given to their employees, which for 2026 will increase from 13.8% to 15%.

These rates are set to remain the same until April 2028.

Employment Allowance

The Employment Allowance means eligible employers can reduce their National Insurance liability for the year by up to the yearly limit. For the 2026/2027 tax year, the Employment Allowance is £10,500.

Corporation tax deadlines 2026

Limited companies pay Corporation Tax on the profits they make each year. You need to register for Corporation Tax within three months of when you start trading. 

Deadline to file your company tax return

You must submit your company tax return within 12 months of the end of the accounting period it covers. Even if you have nothing to pay, you still need to report it.

Deadline to pay Corporation Tax

Usually you’ll need to pay your CT bill within nine months and one day after the end of your accounting period.

Failure to file your Corporation Tax return or to pay your bill on time could lead to penalties. For more information, visit GOV.UK.

Check your legal task deadlines on SeedLegals

That’s our round-up of important dates, deadlines and changes for 2026. With a little forward planning now, you can get ahead of your financial admin for the year and plan for changes in UK law.

To view deadlines for your legal tasks, for example if you need to grant share options before your EMI Valuation expires or you can’t remember a SeedFAST longstop date, log into SeedLegals and go to Calendar. If you’re not sure about a date or deadline, hit the chat bubble to ask our experts.