The Treasury confirmed the date on 31 July. The Budget will be delivered on Wednesday 28 October 2026, with the Office for Budget Responsibility publishing its economic and fiscal forecast the same day. Between now and then you will read a great deal about what might be in it, most of it from people who do not know.
Our advice for the next three weeks is simple, and it is not what the headlines will suggest. Do not plan around what the Budget might say. Plan around what is already true, because quite a lot already is.
Why Budget speculation is a poor guide
Every autumn the same thing happens. A measure is floated in a Sunday paper, business owners rearrange their affairs over the following week, and then the measure either never appears or appears in a form nobody predicted. Acting on a rumour costs you real money today, for a saving that may never exist.
There is a second point worth understanding. Most Budget changes take effect from the start of the next tax year, 6 April 2027, which gives everyone months to adjust. A few measures do start on Budget day itself, usually ones where the Treasury wants to stop people getting ahead of the change, and Capital Gains Tax rates have moved that way before. That is rare rather than routine, and it is still not a reason to sell something on 27 October that you did not want to sell.
So the honest position is that nothing is law until it is law, and on 29 October we will know. Until then, here is what we already know.
What is changing whatever the Chancellor says
None of these need a Budget. They are already legislated, already announced, or already in force, and they apply to a great many of our clients.
| Date | What happens | Who it affects |
|---|---|---|
| 18 November 2026 | Companies House identity verification transition period ends | Every company director and person with significant control |
| 30 December 2026 | Last day to file online if you want a Self Assessment bill under £3,000 collected through your tax code | Anyone with PAYE income and a modest tax bill |
| 31 January 2027 | Self Assessment return and payment for 2025 to 2026 | Sole traders, landlords, most company directors |
| 6 April 2027 | Making Tax Digital for Income Tax extends to gross self-employment and property income over £30,000 | Sole traders and landlords in the second wave |
| 6 April 2027 | Self Assessment reporting threshold for trading income rises from £1,000 to £3,000 | People with small side incomes |
| 6 April 2027 | Company cars, fuel and medical benefits must be reported through the payroll instead of on a P11D | Companies providing those benefits |
Two more changes are already in force rather than coming. Dividend tax rates went up by two percentage points in April 2026, which is why the salary or dividends question deserves a fresh look this year rather than a rule of thumb. And the fixed penalties for a late Company Tax Return doubled to £200 in April 2026, as our guide to the Corporation Tax payment deadline explains.
If you run a limited company, the identity verification date is the one to deal with first. It is free, it takes a few minutes, and it is an offence to miss it. Our guide to Companies House identity verification sets out whose deadline falls when, because for most directors the real date is earlier than 18 November.
If you work for yourself, the Making Tax Digital threshold is the one to think about. HMRC uses your 2025 to 2026 tax return to decide whether you are in from April 2027, so the return you are about to file is also the test. Our plain-English guide to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax covers who is caught.
How to spend the next three weeks
There are three things worth doing before Budget day, and none of them involve guessing.
1. Know your 2025 to 2026 number. Every sensible Budget question, from whether to take a dividend to whether a pension contribution makes sense, starts with how much profit you actually made and what you are already due to pay. If your return for the year to 5 April 2026 is not yet done, do it now. Filing early does not mean paying early, and our guide to filing your tax return early explains why the autumn is the right time.
2. Write down the decisions you are weighing, and then wait. Buying a van. Making a pension contribution. Taking a larger dividend before 5 April. Incorporating, or deciding not to. Have the list ready so that when the documents are published you can act on facts rather than forecasts. Waiting a fortnight for the facts rarely costs anything. Guessing often does.
3. Do not pull income forward on a hunch. The most common pre-Budget mistake we see is a director declaring a large dividend in October because a newspaper suggested rates might rise. The tax on that dividend is real and payable. The rise it was meant to beat may never happen, and if it does it will almost certainly start next April anyway. If you have a genuine reason to take money out, take it. A headline is not a genuine reason.
What Budget day actually looks like
The speech starts at around half past twelve and lasts about an hour. The speech is written for the news bulletins, so the important detail is often left out of it. The real content is in the documents the Treasury publishes the moment the Chancellor sits down: the Red Book, the policy costings and the tax information notes, where the thresholds, the start dates and the exceptions live.
That is where we spend the afternoon. We read the documents rather than the coverage, work out what applies to our clients, and tell each of them what matters to them and nothing else. A sole trader does not need a briefing on Corporation Tax. A company director does not need one on the trading allowance.
Expect some of what is announced to be a confirmation of things on the list above rather than news. The Budget is also where the National Minimum Wage rates for the following April are usually confirmed, which matters if you have staff, or a salary of your own set close to the minimum.
After 28 October
Once the Budget has landed we will update these pages where anything has moved, and the guides linked above will say what changed and when. If a measure affects your fixed fee, which is unusual, we will tell you before it does.
In the meantime, the three weeks before a Budget are a good moment to ask whether your accountant is telling you things before they happen or after. Our clients will know what the Budget means for them within a day or two, in plain English, without having to ask. Sole Trader is £62.50 per month, Ltd Company Starter is from £105 per month, and Growing Strong, for companies wanting more planning through the year, is from £205 per month. All are fixed fees, with no charge for picking up the phone to ask what a headline means.
If you would like someone reading the Red Book on your behalf this year, Get your instant quote and see your fixed monthly fee in under a minute.