The Autumn Budget will take place on 28 October 2026. For UK business owners, the weeks before the Budget are a good opportunity to review the numbers, understand the current position of the business and identify areas that may need attention.
Every Budget brings speculation.
Will taxes change? Will businesses face new costs? Will allowances be amended? Will there be new incentives?
Until the Chancellor actually delivers the Budget, speculation is exactly that – speculation.
For business owners, a much more useful approach is to concentrate on the things they can control.
Start With Your Current Financial Position
Before thinking about possible tax changes, make sure you understand where your business stands today.
Ask yourself:
- Is your bookkeeping completely up to date?
- Do you know your current profit rather than simply your bank balance?
- How much Corporation Tax are you currently expecting?
- Are your VAT records accurate?
- How much money is owed to your business?
- Are there overdue supplier bills?
- Do you have sufficient cash available for upcoming tax liabilities?
- Have all legitimate business expenses been recorded?
These may sound like simple questions, but many business owners only look closely at these figures when their year-end accounts are being prepared.
By then, some opportunities to plan ahead may already have passed.
Your Bank Balance Is Not Your Profit
This remains one of the most common misunderstandings in business.
Seeing £30,000 in a company bank account does not necessarily mean the business has £30,000 available to spend.
Part of that money may effectively belong elsewhere.
There could be:
VAT waiting to be paid.
PAYE and National Insurance liabilities.
Corporation Tax.
Supplier invoices.
Payroll commitments.
Loan repayments.
Other upcoming business costs.
This is why reliable bookkeeping is so important.
A bank balance tells you how much cash is in the account.
Good accounting tells you what that cash actually means.
Review Your Cash Flow Before Making Big Decisions
Profitability and cash flow are related, but they are not the same thing.
A profitable company can still experience cash-flow problems if customers pay slowly, large bills fall at the same time or too much money is withdrawn from the business.
Take a look at your aged debtors.
Who owes you money?
How long have those invoices been outstanding?
Could invoices be issued sooner?
Are customers regularly paying late?
Even small improvements to invoicing and credit control can make a significant difference to the amount of working capital available to a business.
Check Your Tax Position
October is also a sensible time to review what you may owe HMRC over the coming months.
Depending on your circumstances, this could include:
- Corporation Tax
- VAT
- PAYE and National Insurance
- Self Assessment
- CIS liabilities
- Payments on Account
For individuals within Self Assessment, another deadline is approaching.
For most taxpayers choosing to submit a paper Self Assessment return for the 2025/26 tax year, the filing deadline is 31 October 2026. The standard online filing deadline remains 31 January 2027. GOV.UK
Leaving tax planning until shortly before payment is due can put unnecessary pressure on business cash flow.
Knowing approximately what you are likely to owe gives you time to prepare.
Don’t Make Business Decisions Based on Budget Rumours
In the weeks before a Budget, newspapers and social media inevitably fill with predictions about tax.
Some will prove accurate.
Many will not.
Selling an asset, changing the way you pay yourself, making a major investment or restructuring a company purely because of speculation can have unintended tax and commercial consequences.
If you’re considering a significant transaction, speak to your accountant about the rules that actually apply today.
Once the Budget has been delivered on 28 October, businesses can assess confirmed announcements and determine whether any action is appropriate. GOV.UK
If You Run a Limited Company, Look Beyond Corporation Tax
Tax planning for company directors is rarely about one tax in isolation.
Your overall position can involve Corporation Tax, salary, dividends, benefits, pension contributions, personal tax and the Director’s Loan Account.
A decision that appears tax-efficient in one area can have consequences elsewhere.
This is particularly important if you regularly withdraw money from your company.
Make sure you understand whether those withdrawals have been recorded as salary, dividends, expenses, repayment of money owed to you or transactions through your Director’s Loan Account.
Good records make these decisions considerably easier to manage.
Self-Employed or a Landlord? Digital Records Matter More Than Ever
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is already operating for the first group of taxpayers in the 2026/27 tax year.
From 6 April 2026, qualifying sole traders and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000 in the 2024/25 tax year generally need to use MTD for Income Tax unless an exemption applies. HMRC’s guidance was most recently updated in September 2026. GOV.UK
That makes accurate, ongoing digital bookkeeping increasingly important.
For affected taxpayers, bookkeeping can no longer be something that is ignored for months and reconstructed shortly before the Self Assessment deadline.
Look at Your Business Expenses
Another useful exercise is to review what the business is actually spending money on.
Subscriptions are a particularly good place to start.
Businesses often accumulate software subscriptions, online services, memberships, insurance policies and other recurring costs that nobody has reviewed for years.
Individually, they may seem insignificant.
Together, they can represent thousands of pounds of unnecessary annual expenditure.
At the same time, make sure legitimate business expenses are being captured correctly. Missing expenses can mean your accounts show a higher profit than they should.
Think Beyond Tax
Good accounting isn’t simply about paying less tax.
Your financial records should help answer much bigger questions:
Is the business becoming more profitable?
Which areas generate the strongest margins?
Can the company afford another employee?
Is there enough cash to invest?
Are customers paying quickly enough?
Are costs increasing faster than revenue?
Can the business comfortably meet its commitments over the next six months?
If your accounts cannot help answer those questions, you may not be getting enough value from your financial information.
A Simple Pre-Budget Business Check
Before 28 October, consider reviewing:
✔️ Bookkeeping
✔️ Bank reconciliation
✔️ Outstanding customer invoices
✔️ Supplier liabilities
✔️ VAT position
✔️ PAYE and payroll liabilities
✔️ Corporation Tax estimate
✔️ Business expenses
✔️ Director’s Loan Account
✔️ Cash reserves
✔️ Upcoming HMRC and Companies House deadlines
✔️ Expected income and expenditure for the next six months
You don’t need to wait for the Government to announce tax changes to improve the financial management of your business.
Know Your Numbers Before the Rules Change
The UK Budget on 28 October 2026 may bring announcements affecting businesses and taxpayers. We will know the details once the Chancellor has delivered it.
Until then, the most useful thing business owners can do is make sure their existing financial position is clear.
At Lucas Prestige Accountants, we support Limited Companies, sole traders and individuals across the UK with bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, Corporation Tax, Self Assessment and ongoing accounting support.
We believe good accounting should do more than keep a business compliant.
It should help you understand where your business is today – and prepare for where it is going next.
Lucas Prestige Accountants
☎️ 0161 398 0750
📱 07479 611 726
✉️ info@lucasprestigeaccountants.com
🌐 www.lucasprestigeaccountants.co.uk