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Weekly Technical Bulletin - 27th August 2010

FINANCIAL REPORTING

1. Companies House has issued a briefing stating it is currently rejecting a very high number of submitted annual accounts of companies and LLPs - the rate is 11.1% to date this year - and giving the main reasons for rejection. The main reason is incorrect balance sheet statements: the briefing usefully includes the statements required for companies and LLPs.

2. LLP secretarial: Companies House will now accept webfiling of annual returns and other forms for LLPs.

3. Service charge accounts: it is understood that the Government will not be progressing the long-awaited accounting regulations that would have required service charge statements to be issued to lessees.

DIRECT TAXES

TAX

1. The August edition of HMRC’s Trusts & Estates Newsletter has been published. HMRC Trusts and HMRC Inheritance Tax offices have been merged under a single management struture and is now known as HMRC Trusts and Estates. Not necessarily connected with the previous announcement, there is now a single dedicated agent priority line for trust matters on 0845 604 6455 (there is no change to the IHT helpline on 0845 302 0900). Last but not least, since 1 July 2010, internet filed SA Trust returns have been processed automatically!

2. Revenue & Customs Brief 34/10 outlines the circumstances in which HMRC will consider an individual’s domicile. Whilst this primarily concerns IHT issues, it does say that in deciding to open an enquiry, HMRC will consider whether there is a significant amount of tax (all taxes and duties not just IHT) at risk.

3. If you have a client who has recently received a demand from HMRC with no contact details you might like to read the article Just pay! In this week’s Taxation.

INDIRECT TAXES

1. VAT

HMRC have added another item to their website: “What to do if you made a mistake on an earlier VAT return.” Somewhat confusingly this follows hot on the heels of the July 2010 update of Notice 700/45 “How to correct VAT errors”. Just for good measure we also have “Correcting mistakes made on earlier VAT returns” a little snippet that appeared on 20/8. It seems we need to read all three (any advance on three?) items in order to get a full picture.

OTHER

1. You may have noticed that the home page of HMRC’s website has changed this week. We leave you to make up your own mind as to whether it is better or not.

2. A new free-to-access official website provides access to nearly all of UK legislation. Legislation.gov.uk brings together and will replace legislative content from OPSI and the Statute Law Database websites.

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