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VAT is due a month and 7 days after each quarter, PAYE on the 22nd of each month and corporation tax 9 months and a day after the year end. A weekly forecast sets those dates against the quiet months.
All guidesHospitality takings arrive every day. Tax is paid on fixed dates, in amounts built up over weeks or months. A cash plan for the year starts with those dates.
In that example, four payments to HMRC fall between 1 January and 7 February, straight after Christmas trading and before the spring. The same dates arrive every year, so they can be planned for from the summer.
Every hospitality business has weeks when takings fall and the costs carry on: wages for the core team, rent, energy, loan repayments and the tax for the busy weeks before. Find yours from last year's weekly takings, not from memory, and set them against the payment dates above.
Costs change on fixed dates too. The National Living Wage rises from £12.71 to £13.21 an hour in April 2027, so every hour worked at that rate costs 50p more from April, before employer National Insurance and holiday pay. Business rates bills arrive in February or March. A pub with a rateable value of £30,000 paying the 38.2p small business hospitality multiplier in England has a bill of £11,460 for 2026/27 before any relief, £955 a month if spread over 12 months.
A weekly cash forecast covering the next 13 weeks shows each quiet patch before it arrives. List takings by week from last year adjusted for this year's prices and bookings, then every payment on the day it leaves the bank: wages, PAYE, suppliers, rent, VAT, loan repayments and rates. The lowest balance in the 13 weeks is the figure to manage.
VAT is collected from customers every day and paid to HMRC once a quarter. For up to four months and a week it sits in your bank account and looks like money to spend.
Move the VAT into a separate account each week. A business that does this pays every return from money already set aside.
Two VAT schemes change when VAT is paid. Under the Annual Accounting Scheme you make advance payments based on your last return and send one return a year. You can join if your estimated VAT taxable turnover for the next 12 months is £1.35 million or less, and must leave if it is likely to pass £1.6 million. Under the Cash Accounting Scheme, open to businesses with VAT taxable turnover of £1.35 million or less, you pay VAT on sales when customers pay you and reclaim VAT on purchases when you pay the supplier. Takings paid at the till are paid on the day, so cash accounting moves only the timing of the VAT you reclaim.
Wages leave on payday and the PAYE for them leaves on the 22nd of the next tax month. Payroll software reports each pay run to HMRC on a Full Payment Submission, which includes everyone paid, even those paid less than £96 a week.
Card and app tips paid through payroll add to the PAYE bill. Tips have to reach staff by the end of the month after the customer paid, so tips taken in December are paid out by 31 January and the PAYE on them is due in February. Extra staff for December and a summer season raise the PAYE bills a month later.
Deposits for parties, functions and rooms arrive weeks or months before the event. HMRC VAT Notice 700 says that most deposits serve primarily as advance payments and create a tax point when you receive them, so the VAT on them is due on the return for the period in which they were paid.
The cash is in the bank in October, the VAT is paid in February, and the food, drink and staff for the parties are paid for in December and January. Keep deposits apart from the trading balance until the event has taken place. For rooms, VAT Notice 709/3 says that if you keep a deposit for a booking the customer does not take up, VAT remains due on it.
Corporation tax for a company with a 31 March year end is due on 1 January. Set aside a share of each month's profit from the start of the year: at the 19% small profits rate, 19p of every £1 of taxable profit. A company making £4,000 a month of taxable profit sets aside £760 a month, and the bill is covered when it falls due nine months after the year end.
Spending on kitchen equipment, furniture and fittings reduces taxable profit through capital allowances. The Annual Investment Allowance gives a 100% deduction on up to £1 million a year of plant and machinery, so equipment bought before the year end lowers that year's corporation tax. The cash leaves when the equipment is paid for, and the tax saving arrives months later.
Self Assessment payments on account start after the first year with a tax bill of £1,000 or more. Each payment on account is half of the previous year's tax, due on 31 January and 31 July. They are not needed if last year's bill was less than £1,000, or if more than 80% of the tax was paid at source.
If a tax bill cannot be paid in full, HMRC may agree a payment plan to pay it in instalments. HMRC checks whether the plan is affordable. Contact HMRC before the due date.
For a shortfall that will last longer than a quarter, the options are to cut costs, raise prices, bring in more money from the owners, or borrow. We introduce businesses to funders through Swoop and prepare the figures a lender will ask for. We do not recommend a lender or a product.
Business Pulse builds a 12-month cash flow forecast from your bank, payroll and booking figures, sets the tax dates into it, and reviews it with you each month or quarter. See Business Pulse for hospitality.
One calendar month and 7 days after the end of each VAT quarter, the same deadline as the return.
By the 22nd of the next tax month if paid electronically, or by the 19th if paid by cheque through the post.
Most deposits are advance payments and create a tax point when they are received, so the VAT goes on the return for that period.
HMRC may agree a payment plan to pay it in instalments, after checking that the plan is affordable.
31 January and 31 July. Each is half of the previous year's tax.
Send us your last accounts, a recent VAT return and one payroll run. We will show you what we would change and what it would cost each month.