IT’S not even Christmas and here I am talking about New Year. I’d like to suggest a few tax related resolutions.

The first is that if you have an accountant and haven’t yet sent your tax return papers in, the sooner you do so the better. Leaving it until this late stage means that there is less time to think about tax planning: avoiding a £100 late filing penalty is important, but good advice is far more so.

The second resolution is to think ahead if you are planning on retiring or selling your business. I believe we will see further significant changes to the tax relief given on payments into pensions (we already know about some that will take effect from next April). I also believe that we will see changes to capital gains tax at some point and that those changes could include restrictions to entrepreneurs’ relief which serves to reduce the rate of tax on a business disposal. Another thing that concerns me is the recent announcement of a consultation on the taxation of distributions from companies and while that may sound like a purely technical issue, it could herald some very significant changes.

The third resolution, if you are in business or a landlord, is to consider how you keep your business records. The government has announced that by the end of 2018 HMRC will require businesses and landlords to report their income tax information to HMRC at least quarterly and in a digital format. This means that if you are currently keeping manual records you will have to change to digital. HMRC is also keen to better align the time that you pay tax with the point at which profits are earned. This is set to be the biggest change to the way business records are kept and tax liabilities are reported to HMRC in living memory. I hope that ministers will think carefully about the additional burden this is bound to place on many thousands of small businesses.

The fourth resolution is to make time once January is over to ask your accountant or financial adviser if they think a meeting would be worthwhile to review your affairs and to consider the opportunities to reduce your potential tax burden.

My prediction for next year is an easy one: there will be more changes to the tax system. Sound advice will be more important than ever.

Paul Aplin OBE is a tax partner with A C Mole & Sons and chairman of the Technical Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales Tax Faculty; you can follow him on Twitter @PaulAplinOnTax. He and fellow tax partner Amanda Gunter can be contacted on 01823 624450