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This intel was added by Roy Law

Roy Law

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This intel has been classified as Unpublished Original Content, which means it first appeared on Qassia.

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Why April 5 ends the UK Tax Year

For many hundreds (at least) of years certain days of the year have been taken as the starting point for financial transactions - including the hiring and firing of labourers and servants.

Not surprisingly, these certain days related first to the seasons, then the equinoxes, then religious festivals, then taxes.

In the UK, these certain days became known as Quarter Days: Lady Day (25 March), Midsummer Day (24 June), Michaelmas (25 September) and Christmas (25 December).

Over 400 years ago the Julian calendar was the one most widely used throughout the world, this was reformed to the Gregorian (named after the papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582) in order to more accurately align the calendar with the seasons.

However, the UK did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752 by which time it was necessary to apply a correction of 11 days. So, in September of that year, Thursday 3rd to Wednesday 13th "vanished". Some of the populace thought that part of their lives had been taken away from them and there were riots with people crying "Give us back our eleven days!".

Unsurprisingly, the end of the tax year "effectively stayed on the Julian calendar" and so became 5th April which it remains until this day.

Contributor's Note
There are also similarities with Legal Terms in England, of which there are four: Hilary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas - but these are not of equal length.