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Weekly Technical Bulletin - 3rd February 2012

FINANCIAL REPORTING

1. The “New FRS”: the ASB has issued further proposals for a comprehensive accounting standard to replaces all current SSAPs and FRSs. The proposals replace FREDs 43 to 45 and is no longer called FRSME. The proposals largely follow the ASB’s tentative decisions last year and remove much of the transitional impact on UK GAAP. The recommended mandatory implementation is deferred until 31.12.15. KPMG give a decent short summary. FRSSE will be retained, although its content will be the subject of future consultation following proposed changes to EC Accounting Directives. Rules for charities and other public benefit entities are now incorporated into the main standard (in separate paragrahs) – these are also of lesser impact than earlier proposals.

DIRECT TAXES

1. TAX

1. SA tax return deadline: as reported last week, the deadline for submission remained at 31 January but HMRC said that, in view of industrial action at some call centres, they will not charge a penalty where the return was submitted prior to midnight on 2 February. There is no extension to the enquiry window which remains as 31 January 2013.

2. Beneficial interest rate: the official rate of interest, used for benefit purposes etc, will remain at 4.0% for 2012/13, subject to review in the event of significant changes in the base rate.

3. Powers, penalties etc: HMRC has published a summary of recent legislation on compliance checks, penalties for late returns etc and, usefully, the effective date in each case.

INDIRECT TAXES

1. VAT

1. Updated notices: Notice 701/32 Burial, cremation and the commemoration of the dead. The Notice has been rewritten generally. Also notice 701/21A Investment Gold Coins has been updated with several changes to the list of exempt gold coins in previous Notices.

2. Machine Games Duty: draft regulations have been published on the new MGD, expected to take effect from February 2013.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, information contained in this publication may not be comprehensive and recipients should not act solely on the basis of this information.

For further information on any of the above please email technical@larking-gowen.co.uk