Tax Year

A tax year refers to the annualized period covered by a particular tax return. In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows some flexibility in determining the start and end dates of a tax year, and it is not necessarily the same period as a fiscal year.

A tax year is an annual accounting period for keeping records and reporting income and expenses. Individuals adhere to a calendar tax year set out by the government or taxing authority. A business can use either the calendar year or fiscal year as its tax year for income reporting. A calendar tax year refers to the twelve consecutive months beginning January 1 and ending December 31. The fiscal year is any twelve consecutive month period that ends on any day of any month, except the last day of December. When a company’s tax year is shorter than twelve months, it is simply referred to as a short tax year.

A tax year is an annual accounting period used by a taxpaying individual or firm for tax purposes. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows most businesses to use either a calendar year or the firm’s fiscal year as its tax year. Exceptions to this are firms that are required to use the calendar year ending December 31 as their tax year. These include sole proprietorships and single-member LLCs. These firms are required to end their tax year on December 31 because they generally pay taxes as an extension of their single owner.

Whatever method is used to define a tax year, the IRS requires that all firms end their tax year on a quarterly basis, so all tax years should end on March 31, June 30, September 30 or December 31. The IRS identifies firms with non-calendar year tax years by their selected tax year end date. The IRS discourages businesses from changing their treatment of the tax year except in the first or last year of a business. Written IRS approval is required to do so.

Individuals generally use a December 31 tax year, with an annual return due on April 15 of the following year. When the 16th Amendment was passed in 1913, granting taxation authority to the federal government, Congress designated February 1 as tax filing day. This date was moved progressively backward to where it is today, on April 15. Some commentators have suspected that this has allowed the government to hold onto taxpayers’ money longer. Whatever the case, the movement from February to March to April has coincided with an increase in the pool of eligible taxpayers. When the 16th Amendment was passed, a small number of very wealthy individuals was expected to pay federal tax. The pool of taxpayers has grown significantly since then.

Every state handles taxation independent of the federal system, but most that do impose income taxes use April 15 as their required filing date. Virginia is one exception, with a filing deadline of May 1. Several states that do not charge income taxes impose taxes on other revenue, such as stock dividends. New Hampshire, which has no income or sales tax, compensates by charging a relatively high property tax. New Hampshire property tax rates are set annually in November, and the property tax year runs from March 21 to April 1 for all property owners.

A short tax year is a fiscal or calendar tax year that is less than twelve months in length. Short tax years occur either when a business is started or a business’ accounting period changes. Short tax years occur only for businesses, never for individual taxpayers, because individuals must file on a calendar-year basis and do not have the option of choosing a fiscal year.

A short tax year can also occur when a business decides to change its taxable year, a change that requires the approval of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after the entity files Form 1128. In this case, the short tax period begins on the first day after the close of the old tax year and ends on the day before the first day of the new tax year. For example, a business that reports income from June to June every year decides to change its fiscal year to begin in October. Therefore, a short tax year from June to October must be reported.