Changing company year start date with HMRC to include short dormant period

Changing company year start date with HMRC

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Is it possible (and a good idea) to change a limited company's year start date with HMRC to match the Companies House date, so the accounting periods fully match and I can can use the joint filing service? I have a company that was dormant for 3 weeks after registration, which means I have two HMRC accounting periods and a third one from CH, all with different dates. So I'd like to fold the dormant period into the main one, in which the company was trading.

I understand year starts can sometimes be changed, but only by post to the company's local tax office. Assuming dormancy doesn't stop me doing that, has anyone done it before and received an acknowledgement from HMRC? Bit worried that letters go in a black hole, and even if mine was eventually acted on, I wouldn't know the change has been made.

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RLI
By lionofludesch
16th Aug 2016 14:33

The date of the Companies House accounts creates a new Corporation Tax period so they will always align here.
In addition, no CT period can last more than a year and trading is also an event which starts a new period.

Why not give us some dates of real events as opposed to saying you have one date for this and another for that ? You say the company was dormant for three weeks but does that mean the rest of the period was more or less than a year ?

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Replying to lionofludesch:
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By ben386
16th Aug 2016 14:42

The company was incorporated on 14th May last year, began trading on 10th June, and stopped trading on 31st March this year. 31st March was already the CH year end, and I've shortened the HMRC one to match. So the periods are less than a year in any case, and it's only the three weeks of dormancy that stop them matching completely.

I'm planning to strike it off, so these will hopefully be the only accounts filed.

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Replying to ben386:
By johngroganjga
16th Aug 2016 14:57

Not sure what you mean by "shortened the HMRC one". A company has only one accounting reference date and it changes that by notifying Companies House of its wish to do so in the required form. There is no such thing as an HMRC accounting reference date.

From what you say your company has one CT accounting period commencing on 10 June 2015 and ending on 31 March 2016. it doesn't get much simpler than that.

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By ben386
16th Aug 2016 16:06

You're quite right, sorry. I mixed up the two in my reply. It was the Companies House reference date which I moved back to match the HMRC one on 31st March.

Logging in to the gov.uk filing service, I am asked for accounts covering 14th May 2015 to 31st March 2016 for Companies House. HMRC, on the other hand, wants two sets of accounts, one for 14th May to 10th June, and the other for 11th June to 31st March. Not sure how to proceed really.

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Replying to ben386:
By johngroganjga
16th Aug 2016 17:06

You are still misunderstanding. There is no HMRC date to "match".

And you misunderstand what HMRC are asking for. They are not asking for two separate sets of accounts. They are asking for two separate tax returns. If they realised that any tax return you submitted for the first period would be completely devoid of any figures they would not want to see it. For the time it would take to produce it the line of least resistance might just be to send them one, but preferably at the same time as the return for the later period.

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Replying to ben386:
RLI
By lionofludesch
16th Aug 2016 17:08

Tell them you weren't trading in that period and you'll find that their need for the accounts miraculously disappears.

You've made it far more complex than it needed to be but - hey - it's done now. There was no need to change the ARD to achieve what you've achieved.

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Replying to lionofludesch:
By johngroganjga
16th Aug 2016 17:34

lionofludesch wrote:

Tell them you weren't trading in that period and you'll find that their need for the accounts miraculously disappears.

I think you mean "tax return" not "accounts". The accounts will have to be submitted to support the return for the trading period.

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Replying to johngroganjga:
RLI
By lionofludesch
16th Aug 2016 17:47

I don't know. You may well be right. I'm now completely fogged as to what periods the OP is preparing accounts for.

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Scalloway Castle
By scalloway
16th Aug 2016 17:01

If your company started trading on 11 June then the amounts for the prior period will be zero except for share capital.

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Replying to scalloway:
By johngroganjga
16th Aug 2016 17:36

Surely even share capital will be zero. I wasn't aware that share capital appeared in CT computations.

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