THE MERRY-GO-ROUND OF CONSTANT DEADLINES
Being successful in business, as far as the regulatory side of things is concerned, is to keep on the merry-go-round of constant deadlines! Assuming you are the director and shareholder of a limited company then the following deadlines apply to you.
Limited companies:
A private limited company should file its annual accounts with Companies House 9 months after its year end. Watch out for new companies – their accounts must be filed the earlier of 9 months after the year end (technically the accounting reference date) or 21 months after the date the company was incorporated. For established private limited companies check out our Companies House year end filing deadlines resource.
The corporation tax return covers a maximum 12 month period, so if your accounts are for a period longer than 12 months you will need to file more than one CT600. The CT600 tax return needs to be filed within a year but the corporation tax itself should be paid 9 months and 1 day after the accounting period for corporation tax ends.
Companies House also requires the annual Confirmation Statement. This is filed on the anniversary of the company being incorporated or the anniversary of the last Confirmation Statement.
If your company employs members of staff, Pay As You Earn (PAYE), National Insurance and student loan deductions must be paid to HMRC. Tax months finish on the 5th and the tax deductions are due on 17 days later on the 22nd or last working day before the 22nd. So if 22 March is a Sunday the PAYE needs to paid over by Friday 20 March.
VAT – the VAT return should be filed, and paid, by a month and a week after the VAT period – which is usually a quarter. Therefore for the VAT quarter ending on 31 March the VAT return has to be filed by 7 May and the VAT paid that day (unless you pay by direct debit and then they take the payment by 10 May but it could be as late as 12 May).
Personal:
You need to file your electronic Self Assessment tax return and have paid your income tax by midnight on the following 31 January.
If your tax due was over £1,000 you will probably need to make advanced payments towards the current year’s tax liability. These are known as payments on account and are due on 31 January in the tax year and 31 July after the tax year with a final balancing payment due on the next 31 January. Payments on account are based on your previous year’s tax bill.
Conclusion:
To help focus your attention all the above deadlines are protected by the treat of fines and interest being charged. Therefore burying your head in the sand and ignoring those brown envelopes is a bad strategy.
As a firm of Chartered Accountants based in Leeds city centre the team here at Aysgarth will look after you. We file accounts and tax returns on time. If you want to remove the worry of these regulatory burdens then please contact us and stop worrying!
