Happy New Year
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Happy New Year!
ProACT Sam celebrates the New Year and looks forward to a less taxing year ahead.
Travelling around the world, you soon notice the consistencies that link different cultures and religions. As the Stonehenge relic suggests, mankind has possessed sophisticated organisation and communication skills for much more than the last 5,000 years. One such conundrum centers around the New Year.
A year is a measure of the Earth’s journey through the universe based upon the sun and the moon. Older traditions tend to use the lunar month as the basis of the calendar… and they’re not complete "lunatics." As any mathematician will tell you, 28 x 13 = 364. There are roughly 13 lunar cycles in an Earth year of around 365 days. The solar calendar gets around this with 12 months and "odd" days.
The Four Quarters
The year is divided into ancient quarters centered on the longest and shortest days (the Solstices) and the points of equilibrium (the Equinoxes). There are 13 weeks in a quarter, and the halfway mark can be measured consistently as a "half term."
Traditional celebrations at Christmas, Easter, Midsummer, and Autumn have generally been overlain with religious holidays. The European New Year was traditionally in springtime at the Easter festival. This originated as the Germanic festival of Eostre for spring and fertility—the start of the agricultural year.
New Year in Spring
Until 1752, Britain retained March 25th as New Year’s Day. Western Catholic-led Europe changed to the current Gregorian Calendar starting around 1582, switching the New Year to midwinter.
In the run-up to the traditional Spring New Year, there is a fasting period. This undoubtedly reflects the depletion of food stores from the previous year’s harvest. Major religions in the north adopt and overlay this fasting with a 40-day Lent, Passover, or Ramadan period—roughly 6 weeks, or a "half-term" between midwinter and spring.
The Roman Empire eventually split between the West (Rome) and the East (Constantinople). These traditions survive today in the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The date of Easter varies each year, heralding back to pre-Christian days; Christians use the Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox.
The Great Calendar Shift
While the West adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, Orthodox Christians in the East often still calculate Easter based on the Julian Calendar, established by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. Today, the older Julian Calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian Calendar, as it retains the "errors" remedied by the 1582 switch.
Happy Chinese New Year
The Chinese and Muslim traditions differ slightly. They measure the second full moon after the Winter Solstice (December 21-23) as a significant marker. This year, Chinese New Year falls on February 17th, 2026, coinciding roughly with the "half-term" point.
Happy New Tax Year
Spring remains the start of the tax year for the UK, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa, and India. While many EU countries (like Portugal, the Netherlands, Malta, and Cyprus) use a December 31st year-end, tax returns are usually due by the spring.
Why April 6th?
The UK retains a unique tax calendar. Until 1752, the tax year ended on March 25th (the old New Year’s Day). When Britain finally switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, they had to skip 11 days to align with the solar cycle.
In 1752, September 2nd was followed immediately by September 14th. To ensure the Treasury did not lose 11 days of revenue, the government temporarily moved the tax year-end to April 5th. This "temporary" change has remained for 272 years!
2026 Note: This year, April 5th is both the end of the UK tax year and Easter Sunday.
2026 Tax Requirements
UK Tax Returns
Anyone with taxable income from the UK must complete a tax return for 2025/26. This includes pensions, employment, rental income, and capital gains.
Cyprus Tax Returns: Big Changes
2026 brings major updates for Cyprus residents:
• Compulsory Filing: Everyone aged 25–70 in Cyprus must now complete a tax return, even if no tax is due.
• GESY Health Tax: This is a flat-rate tax (approx. 2.65%) on worldwide income. To enforce collection on rental or investment income not taxed at source, returns are now mandatory.
• Property/Probate: Anyone selling property or settling an estate has a 5-year tax return obligation.
ProACT Tax Return Services
ProACT Partnership are Tax-Saving Expat Experts. We support expats living and working abroad with effective tax planning and compliance.
Free Review: We offer a free consultant review call to help you understand if you need to file this year and how to maximise your savings.
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