Corporation Tax Form

The date you started trading would be 4 June. Your year end is likely to be 30 June but you can check this by looking at your company’s information at companies house, use this link and enter your company name:

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/ce4dfea29f340d233b8a9121a361e915/wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo

Arthur,

With due respect I would suggest Elaines answer although possibly correct is rather simplistic and does not consider all the options.

The correct answer to your questions depends entirely on your specific circumstances and your tax strategy. Ie you need to get proper advice and not try and "muddle through" on your own. You have chosen to form a company and you need to accept the associated complexity means you need to take proper and timely advice. I would urge you to rectify your lack of formal advice to ensure any errors made to date are corrected as best as they can be (not everything can be changed, sometimes its actually easier to close the company and start a new one) and lay out to you exactly how this company should be properly run to ensure you don’t end up with a huge bill to sort out the mess in 1-2 years time.

I know this sounds really biased but I actually bill an awful lot more in fees resolving messes than I do advising how to run companies properly from the off which I tend to do on a discounted basis as I like to encourage people to take timely advice and not waiting until there is a problem. I just hate to see people make a mess of running their companies which is often so easily avoided. Had one last month that was such a mess I billed a significant fee for 2 years of stat accounts, corp tax, backdated VAT and PAYE. Client should not even been a company let alone VAT registered – sole trader fees would have been about 10% of my actual bill and he would have avoided a huge amount in fines and penalties too - all for the sake of a 10 minute chat 2-3 years earlier and not buying his head in the sand for 2 years.

Finally its worth pointing out that the word “accountant” is not restricted, ie anyone at all can call themselves an accountant with no formal qualifications. If you chose one who has “Chartered” after their name you will have some comfort of competence and regulation as they must be a member of one of 2 professional bodies and comply with their training and practicing standards rather than just muddling along. If your accountant isn’t qualified you tend to have very little come back if they make a mess of things.

Sorry if that sounds a bit preachy but if you saw the amount of messes I see from DIY/bookeeper only accounts then you would perhaps understand my point of view!

Regards,

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James Smith
Chartered Accountant
www.jamesesmith.co.uk
01235 536 773

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Your indispensable guide to Small Business Bookkeeping, Self-Assessment & VAT