What’s Changed: October 2026

Good evening,

I apologise in advance, because you are going to hear from me twice this month, as the Budget is in a few weeks (I assume you are adequately containing your excitement?) 

We have quite a lot to tell you this month, including our new website, some team news and a few important tax and employment changes to have on your radar.

We’re also thinking about launching a new payroll and minimum wage compliance check, and we’d love to know if it’s something you’d find useful. More on that further down.

Have you seen our spangly new website?

After a lot of work behind the scenes, our new Change Accountants website is live!

Our old website had served us well, but after more than 10 years, a growing team and our acquisition of Sunley & Co, it was time for an update.

You’ll find lots of useful information and articles on there, but our favourite part is that our team are front and centre. Check it out at www.change-accountants.com and let me know what you think.

Sunley email addresses are moving over to Change

We’re continuing the process of bringing Change and Sunley together and, as part of that, the old Sunley email addresses are being transferred over to Change Accountants addresses.

You don’t need to do anything. Emails sent to the old addresses will still find their way to us, but you’ll increasingly see replies and correspondence coming from our @change-accountants.com addresses instead.

Team news

Josie is taking a six-month sabbatical, so she’ll be away from the office for a little while. Last we heard, she was in Argentina. She’s sending us regular updates and photos, and it looks like she’s having a brilliant time, but we can’t wait for her to come back.

We’ve also welcomed Nicola to the Change team.

You’ll start to see Nicola’s name popping up on emails and correspondence, so please join us in making her feel welcome. (Not to be confused with original Nikki, who is still with us. We have two now… and they sit opposite each other.)

MTD: HMRC is now stepping in

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started in April for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000.

If you should have joined MTD from April but haven’t yet signed up, HMRC has now started the process of automatically signing people up where its records show that they should be within the regime.

This doesn’t remove the requirement to keep digital records or submit quarterly updates. It simply means HMRC is now actively bringing people into the system.

If we have identified you as needing to comply with MTD, we will already have been in touch with you. If you receive anything directly from HMRC about MTD, please send it to us. HMRC isn’t sending us copies of these letters, so we won’t know you’ve had one unless you tell us.

And a reminder that MTD expands again from April 2027, when the qualifying income threshold drops to £30,000. That means considerably more landlords and sole traders will be brought in next year.

If you’re a landlord, the £50,000 threshold isn’t based on your rental profit. It looks at qualifying gross income from self-employment and property combined, before expenses.

So, if you have rental income alongside a self-employed business, don’t assume you’re outside MTD simply because neither one individually exceeds the threshold.

And please remember to tell us if you’ve bought, sold or transferred a property, changed the ownership percentages between joint owners, started letting a property for the first time, or started receiving income from somewhere like Airbnb. These are all things we need to know about, even if you don’t think there is any tax to pay.

Child Benefit: HMRC is checking

HMRC is currently contacting some people who it thinks may need to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge.

The charge can apply where you or your partner receives Child Benefit and one of you has adjusted net income over £60,000.

One useful change is that if the High Income Child Benefit Charge is the only reason you would otherwise need to complete a tax return, you may now be able to pay the charge through your PAYE tax code instead.

If you need to complete a Self Assessment return for another reason, the charge will still need to be dealt with through your tax return.

HMRC is sending letters and texts about this at the moment, including asking some people to check previous years. So if you receive one, don’t automatically assume it’s a scam, but equally, don’t click on anything you’re unsure about. Send it to us and we can take a look.

P11Ds are changing, and employers need to start preparing now

HMRC has confirmed the next stage of its plans to make payrolling benefits in kind compulsory.

From April 2027, the first phase will require employers to payroll:

• company cars
• company car fuel
• vans
• van fuel
• medical benefits

Instead of reporting these benefits after the end of the tax year on a P11D, tax will be collected through payroll in real time.

Most other benefits will follow from April 2028. Loans and accommodation will stay optional for now.

April might still feel a long way away, but HMRC is specifically telling employers to start preparing now. Payroll software needs to be capable of dealing with the new reporting and employers need to identify which benefits they currently provide.

We’ll be doing plenty more on this before April.

Employment law changes are coming

There are some significant employment law changes on the way. One of the biggest arrives in January 2027, when the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal protection reduces from two years to six months.

If you employ people, now is a good time to make sure your employment contracts, policies, probation processes and HR procedures are up to date rather than waiting until the changes arrive.

Two HMRC letters that aren’t scams

A pension payment for lower earners. HMRC is making payments to around one million lower earners who paid into a net pay pension scheme but didn’t get the tax relief they would have had under a relief-at-source scheme. HMRC will contact eligible people directly and may ask for bank details. Employers don’t need to do anything.

Tax refunds you need to claim. If HMRC says you’ve overpaid tax over several years, it will generally no longer send a cheque automatically. You’ll need to go online and request the repayment, so don’t assume the money will just arrive. Naturally, they are far keener to demand money from you, than send it back to you…

If you’re unsure whether a letter or text is genuine, send it to us.

National Minimum Wage: are you sure you’re getting it right?

We’re seeing an increase in HMRC minimum wage checks on our clients, and an hourly rate above the minimum on the payslip doesn’t always mean you’re compliant. Unpaid time before or after shifts, working through breaks, deductions for uniforms, salary sacrifice and apprentices on the wrong rate are all common pitfalls. We’ve put together a full guide on our website

It’s the employer’s responsibility to get this right. We run payroll at the rate you give us, but we don’t necessarily know the hours someone actually works. If HMRC finds an underpayment, employers can face arrears, penalties and being publicly named.

We are considering introducing a payroll, pension and National Minimum Wage compliance audit for clients who would like us to take a more detailed look at their arrangements.

If this is something you would be interested in, please reply to this email and let us know. We’re currently gauging demand before deciding exactly what the service will include.

And finally... where is your tax checklist?

We sent our annual tax checklists out in April and lots of you have already sent everything back to us. Thank you!

If yours is still sitting in your inbox, now would be a very good time to find it!

Getting your information to us early gives us time to prepare your return properly, identify any issues or tax planning opportunities and, most importantly, means neither you nor we are trying to deal with everything in January.

A reminder that we apply a surcharge to our normal tax return fee where your completed checklist and/or information are received after 31 October:

• November: 10% surcharge
• December: 20% surcharge
• January: 30% surcharge

These aren’t intended to make January more expensive. They’re intended to stop January happening! There is a limit to how much work we can physically complete in the final few weeks before the Self Assessment deadline, and getting your information earlier means we can give your tax return the time and attention it deserves.

So, if you haven’t sent yours back yet, please make this the month you do it.

If you can’t find your checklist, just let us know and we’ll send you another one.

As always, if anything above affects you and you’re not sure what you need to do, please get in touch.

Stacey & the team