Contractor accountants urgently need to remind their small business clients that the deadline for filing annual employer returns is this coming Thursday, the 19th of May.

HMRC has already published a reminder to let employers know that the returns must be submitted no later than May 19th and firms that fail to comply will be subject to a penalty.

Last year, an extra-statutory concession gave some businesses additional time to file, but the Revenue reminds firms that this has now been removed.

This year, employers who file paper annual returns will face a penalty if their return arrives later than May 19th. In 2010, employers with less than six employees were not fined, but this transitional arrangement has now ended, an HMRC spokesperson said.

Smaller employers, their accountants or bureaux, can use the Revenue’s ‘Online Return and Forms – PAYE’ product to file their data securely online. Employers who have less than ten employees can file their return online using HMRC’s basic PAYE tools.

In related news, HMRC admits that some companies will not receive their new PAYE payment booklet before the deadline for the first payment due this month. The Revenue has advised affected firms to make their payment using the online facilities and make sure it is cleared to HMRC’s account by May 20th.

HMRC also advises employers to apply for a replacement booklet if they are still waiting for one to arrive on Friday 27th May.

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They say that a plumber’s taps are always dripping. That’s because what he does for a living gets left behind when he stops work, and fixing a dripping tap is the last thing he’ll want to do.

I thought of that when I got three different communications this week reminding me I hadn’t done something important for my company. OK, so we can all forget to do things – except I’m basically a Project Manager by trade. Organising things so they don’t get forgotten is what I do. For example, even in the current gig (let’s just say if you wanted to represent it as a painting, you’d need Edvard Munch to do it justice) I manage to keep five work streams running and not dropping things.

So, I was more than a little irritated to have to do company work at home after a ten hour day.

First was Companies House. I got a letter a month ago saying I had not filed my annual return. No worries, I did it that very weekend. Online filing is really dead simple, most of the information is already filled in after all. And I know where I filed the magic numbers to let me log in so it only took 40 minutes to find them. Job done. Today I get another letter: file or we strike off the company. Say what? Cue frantic digging around and no sign of £15 going from the company bank account. Check the email history. Seems I signed up for PROOF (whatever that is) but no confirmation of filing a return. Hmmm… So I do it all again – pausing only to ponder just why I have to fill in “None” in a box about share restrictions when I’m the only shareholder – and this time I get all the confirmations. Phew.

Which rather begs the question though; just what the hell did I do last time round? I didn’t get any error messages, it all seemed to go as planned but clearly I missed a step somewhere. Most odd…

Next one was a VAT return. Second time I’d done one of them on line. Only took 20 minutes to find the log in details this time and once I fathomed my way through the mysteries of the Government Gateway login process I was away. No problems at all.

Then I had to do a form for the accountant. Only six months overdue on that one. And one reminder, saying this is the last reminder I’ll get. Charming, I thought, I pay your wages mate. Anyway a matter of moments to fill in the form. Didn’t even have to hunt for the log in details, I can remember my email address and company number almost every time. Although since 99% of what I just filled in is either in my company details or my accounts, why can’t the accountant look it up for himself and fill it in for me?

OK, so two hours after getting home and it’s all done. It’s time for a large vodka and tonic and collapse in front of something mindless on the telly (there’s plenty of choice, sadly). Bliss…

Oh bugger, haven’t done the blog yet. What the hell am I going to write about this week?

Alan Watts can found at LinkedIn.
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The Companies Act 2006 was introduced on 1st October 2009 as a way of bringing UK companies into the 21st century. It consists of 1300 sections and is the single largest piece of legislation ever made.

The 2006 Act effectively replaces almost all of the Companies Act 1985, the Companies Act 1989 and the Companies Act 2004.

Most of the existing legislation was written back in the days of the quill pen and it was generally accepted that it needed modernising. Smaller businesses form the vast majority of companies registered with Companies House, and were being bogged down with excessive administration due to the out-of-date legislation. Something had to change.

Following the arrival of the Companies Act 2006, a new Annual Return was introduced. Now given the fact that every company registered in the UK has to file an Annual Return, one could quite reasonably expect it to be;

easy to understand,
easily completed,
with good guidance
and completion online.

How does one out of four (online completion) grab you?

Lets take a closer look at the form itself:

One of the first questions it asks is whether you are a ‘traded company’. I suspect the vast majority of directors would answer ‘yes’ – we are not dormant so are trading….right?. A closer inspection of the guidance notes shows that you should be answering ‘no’. A traded company is one in which its shares are publicly traded on the stock markets.

Moving on…

Next you are asked whether you have a SAIL address (or a Single Alternate Inspection Location). I foresee some blank faces but if you ignore the question it goes away, which is probably the right answer.

You are then required to confirm the addresses of directors. Same as before you might think. But if you confirm that, you are confronted with an error message saying that you need to enter the Country of Residence. You need to enter when you changed your Country of Residence as well. ‘But I haven’t’ you might say, but you cannot progress without giving a date on which you did move, even though you have not! It seems safest to use the same date as the made-up date for the Annual Return.

You are then given a number of options for Country of Residence. The most popular options are;

* United Kingdom
* England (seems to be the safest choice, if you do live in England
* UK
* Great Britain

At this point you may also catch sight of notes asking whether you are an EEA Company, or maybe a Non-EEA Company? Don’t worry as these do not apply but it is a little tricky to know that they do not apply without reading the First Company Law Directive (68/151/EEC). Don’t have that to hand? – ignore the note, that is easiest.

On to Capital : Update/Amend. That is ok, share capital and shareholders are the same as last year, so this section must be easy, right? I am afraid not. You are asked to free-type the ‘Prescribed particulars of rights attached to the shares’. I wonder how many directors of small companies know these rights?

Most companies operating with ordinary shares will be safe with the following answer;

‘Fully voting, fully participating, non-redeemable shares’

I hope the above allows you to get through your Annual Return without too much pain, if you are due to make one. It is disappointing though, that a simplification exercise immediately makes things, more difficult and confusing.

John Mumford is the Accounting Director of Carrington Accountancy
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