News

February 2010

Important dates

28th February 2010 - First surcharge for late payment of 2009/2010 tax

1st April 2010 - The tax year ends (yes it's early because of Easter)

19th May 2010 - P35 filing deadline

3rd June 2010 - The last possible date for a general election under the Parliament Act 2011.

6th July 2010 - Form 42 and P11D filing deadline

Nine months - The new time limit for limited company accounts (accounting years starting on or after 6th April 2009)

Sign in black for Companies House

The Companies Act 2006 requires all forms and accounts to be signed only in black.

If the signatures are in another colour the accounts might be rejected, which can prove rather expensive. This is contrary to the rules in some other countries that do not allow signatures in black!

Late filing penalties for companies and limited liability partnerships

Companies House have decided to get tough and implement a new penalty system for the late filing of accounts. After many years of an initial £100 fine, this represents quite a change. If a company fails to comply with filing regulations in respect of the previous financial year (and that previous financial year begins on or after 6th April 2008) the filing fee will be double that shown in the table below. The maximum fine for filing late accounts for a private company will become £3,000 (for a public company the fine could be £15,000). The new regulations came into force 6th April 2008 and are effective for accounting periods commencing on or after 6th April 2008, or for accounts filed on or after 1st February 2009.

Length of period	Private company£	Public company£
Not more than 1 month	150	750
More than 1 month but not more than 3 months	375	1,500
More than 3 months but not more than 6 months	750	3,000
More than 6 months	1,500	7,500

This coincides with the reduced time limits for filing accounts for private and public companies. The new time limit for a private company is 9 months.

Star of the month

Each month the audit office vote for their “star of the month”. This can be for any reason that they deem appropriate (i.e. helpful behaviour, nice hair…). The voting is carefully collated and this month the star goes to:

EVERYONE

(for all our hard work in a very busy month)