Readers’ forum: Mitigating tax on incorporation

Our client is a sole trader with an April year end. If the sole trader does nothing in the 2023-24 transition period they would be taxed on the normal 12 months of profits to 30 April 2023 plus the 11 months of profits to 5 April 2024.

After deducting for overlap profits any additional profits can be spread over five years starting with 2023-24. However the sole trader is considering incorporating on 1 December 2023. Based on our understanding of the rules – as the sole trade is ceasing the calculation of profits in 2023-24 follows the old closing year rules which would mean profits from the normal 12 months to 30 April 2023 plus the seven months to 30 November 2023 are taxed (after overlap profits) but with no spreading. This therefore has a significant impact on the trader’s tax hit in the...