Month: May 2024

How to amend Companies house accounts?

Everybody makes mistakes, so just in case you made one while filing accounts with Companies house information given below will be helpful.

Amended accounts can be filed in paper format by sending them via post to Companies house or via software.

Paper process given below:

They should have the word “Amended” on the first page, conspicuously declared.

You must clearly say in your new accounts that they:

  • replace the original accounts
  • are now the statutory accounts
  • are prepared as they were at the date of the original accounts

Please note both original and amended accounts will remain at Companies house i.e. anyone like a supplier, lender or HMRC will have access to both set of accounts.

Sometimes you may wish to amend only a part of the accounts, for example in case you missed to add a note to accounts or incorrect information was mentioned in a note. In that case you can only send a note stating clearly what has changed along with a copy of the original accounts. This is a better idea than sending a full set of amended accounts as it will save effort on the part of the future reader to compare the two accounts to find the amendment.

Where to send the documents?

Companies registered in England and Wales have to send their accounts to Cardiff.

Companies House
Crown Way
Cardiff CF14 3UZ

Lastly, Companies house can also send an acknowledgement of receipt of documents, if you enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope and a copy of covering letter.

Source: Gov.uk link

Tronc Guidance

A summary of new rules for Tronc.

Summary

  • Coming in force from 1st October 2024
  • All tips (without any kind of deduction) to be passed to workers (agency workers included) by end of following month.
  • Businesses required to have a written tipping policy to ensure fairness and transparency.
  • Code or Act does not affect taxation of tips.
  • Cash tips (if no control exercised by employer) are out of scope of Tipping Act and Code.
  • Tips will be distributed in the restaurant where collected. One restaurant’s tips cannot be paid to staff of other restaurant.

Tipping policy – Factors to Consider

Businesses need to prepare and distribute the tipping policy to all staff members including agency workers. Tipping policy needs to inform staff the basis of tips allocation. Basis can be on several factors, see example list below:

a. Type of role/work e.g. distribution between front of house and backroom workers

b. Basic pay (and how workers are engaged)

c. Hours worked during period when tips are received

d. Individual and/or team performance

e. Seniority/level of responsibility

f. Length of time served with the employer

g. Customer intention

Employers should consult with workers to seek broad agreement in the workplace that the system of allocation of tips is fair, reasonable and clear.

Records

Workers can ask for past 3 years records. Employer will need to provide total tips collected during their employment and amount allocated to the worker making the request but not the specific amounts paid to other workers.

If a worker does not wish to participate in Tronc, Tronc master should get this in writing.

Action:

Restaurants should start preparing a written Tronc policy.

Employee on the road to Samarkand

Employee moving abroad.

March 2021

A client’s employee wished to leave her job as she was moving back to India. Client requested her to keep on working for few months from India until they found a replacement.

As per HMRC guidance I advised them to submit P85 to HMRC.

Client called HMRC and was advised by the specialist team to complete DT individual form, print it off and get it stamped by the Indian Tax Authority.  Once it is stamped it will need to be passed on to HMRC who will issue employer with an NT code (no tax deduction ) but until then employer will keep deducting tax in the UK and run payroll in usual manner. 

The moment employee is issued with an NT code employee does not pay tax in the UK.  Only when P45 is issued employee will be reimbursed any tax overpaid.

July 2021

As expected when employee approached Indian Tax authorities, they made excuses to certify the DT Individual tax form.

April 2023

Employee moved to invoices basis.

Conclusion

In such cases, where employer is small organization, employee should move to invoices basis asap and submit P85 to HMRC. After employee moves to India, employment earnings become taxable in India not in UK, so employee should declare it on their Indian tax return.

Title of this article inspired by a play – Hassan: The Story of Hassan of
Baghdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand
by James Elroy Flecker

How Capital Allowance interact with Capital Gains Tax

This article explains how capital allowance effects capital gains calculations.

A common occurrence in trading businesses is sale of plant & machinery or vehicles used in the business. Rules shown below are applicable both in moveable and fixed plant & machinery for a business following accrual based accounting , for business following cash basis see Bonus point 4 below.

Two scenarios could happen:

  1. Disposal proceeds are less than purchase cost – a loss (usual case)
  2. Disposal proceeds are less than purchase cost – gain

We will try to explain these scenarios, by way of an example.

We need to prepare two calculations – one for capital allowance (CA) and other for capital gains.

X is an individual trader for many years. He brings forward main pool expenditure of £40k. In year 1, he buys a van for £20k and a computer for £5k. He claims AIA on all expenditure. In year 2, he sells the van for £12k and the computer for £8k.

We have illustrated below, how these transactions will affect the Capital Allowance and Capital Gains calculations.

Capital Allowance calculation

Year 1                                                                          Main pool                                        
WDV b/fwd                                                                  40,000
Additions                                                                     25,000
AIA                                        25,000                                                              
                                                                                         40,000
WDV 18%                                                                       7,200                                                              
WDV c/fwd                                                                   32,800

Year 2
WDV b/fwd                                                                   32,800
Disposal value                                                             17,000 a
                                                                                          15,800
WDV 18%                                                                      2,844                                                              
WDV c/fwd                                                                   12,956

a. Disposal value = £12k (van) plus £5k (computer), as disposal value is restricted to original purchase cost.

Capital Gains Calculation

Capital gains is only applied on assets if sold above its original purchase price. Thus, van is ignored for Capital Gains.

                                                                                   Computer b         
Disposal proceeds                                                 8,000
Purchase cost c                                                        5,000
Unindexed Gain                                                      3,000
Indexation allowance (estimated)                 (500)
Indexed Gain                                                             2,500

Note:

b. Gain or loss is computed on each asset individually.
c. Capital allowance taken on assets are completely ignored. TCGA 1992 sec 41

Practice notes:

  1. We should keep note of each item added to the pool – date added/purchased and amount added. Date is important as companies get indexation allowance for items purchased before 31st December 2017. Usually, commercial tax filing software will have the facility to record assets individually and calculate indexation allowance.

Source:

  1. Book – Taxation by Alan Melville
  2. Book – Tolley’s Tax Guide para 22.19, 22.46 and 38.4

Bonus:
1. In case X sells a table to his friend for £1k (market value £2k). Disposal value will be £1k if his friend runs a trading business where he can claim Capital Allowances . In case his friend does not run a trading business and cannot claim Capital allowances disposal value will be £2k.

2. In case X gifts the table to his employee, disposal value will be nil. But tax maybe payable by employee under ITEPA 2003.

3. In case X gifts the table to his brother, disposal value will be £2k (market value).

See HMRC Manual CA23250 on disposal values.

4. For business following cash basis accounting – When a asset is disposed off for more than its purchase price, business owner will be taxable on the full disposal value even if it is higher than purchase price. Source ICAEW Tax guide 04/24.