If a company was registered of 1 January as a limited company, but did not start trading until 1 July, what will the year end date be? 31st December? or 30 June?
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31/01 unless you change it
You can decide what you want it to be. I always prefer 31 March (go for the longest period needed not longer than months) so I can judge the best dividend/salary policy.
Remember that although the statutory accounts start from the registration date, tax returns start from the beginning of trading.
Wrong approach
I'm just curious. Nadia's posts give the impression that she's trying to be an accountant without any experience at all.
What about you?
Of course, you could always make an effort to help her but I suppose that's not why you are on here.
What should I add?
You already helped her and answered her question, I had nothing to add and neither did you, so it should have ended there. If answering a question frustrates you please keep it to yourself rather than trying to be argumentative on here, I'd rather not see this board slip back to the bad old days.
Please feel free to rant at me all you like, I don't intend to visit this topic again.
Seriously Naida you need to have a good read of the Co Hse websi
All this sort of stuff is clrealy set out in their guidance, which is why some members get a bit sniffy if you ask stuff here which you could easily look up. Clients will expect you to have an awareness of the basics.
Good luck with the bookkeeping, if you get any contacts in the North West or any interesting charitable/not for profit stuff give me a call
Chris Smail
Helpful and useless
"I had nothing to add and neither did you, so it should have ended there. If answering a question frustrates you please keep it to yourself rather than trying to be argumentative on here, I'd rather not see this board slip back to the bad old days.
Please feel free to rant at me all you like, I don't intend to visit this topic again."
I had plenty to add to help Nadia. But to know what would help her best I needed to know her background.
You are the one who appears to be argumentative. I am pleased to know that you will not visit this topic again as you clearly have nothing worthwhile to say.
Answering her question didn't frustrate me as any sensible person could see by my reply.
Back to nadia_a
To give you a more helpful answer -
As far as Companies House is concerned the default position in your case is that the accounting reference date (ARD) is 31st January. You may shorten this as many times as you like and by as many months as you like by completing and submitting the relevant form to Companies House. You may normally only lengthen the ARD once every 5 years and only to the extent that the accounting period doesn't exceed 18 months.
So, in your particular circumstances, your choices would include:
Incorporated 01.01.10 First period to 31.01.11 No change to ARD
Incorporated 01.01.10 First period to 31.12.10 Shorten ARD to 31st December
Incorporated 01.01.10 First period to 30.06.11 Extend ARD to 30th June
Whichever ARD you chose, your accounts would be prepared from the date of incorporation (or the end of the last accounting period) to the end of the following accounting period. And you are correct in that this may be for a 13 or 18 month period.
As far as HMRC is concerned, the situation is slightly different. If your company didn't start trading until 1st July 2010 then it would complete a CT Return for the period 01.07.10 to the end of the accounting period - in your case either 31.01.11 or 31.12.10 or 30.06.11.
Needs systematic study and experience
As Chris said, Nadia should do a lot of studying. Maybe she should go on some training courses. You can't learn accounting and taxation solely from AccountingWeb and online resources. We don't even know if she's getting any practical experience on a day to day basis - which was the reason for my question to her.
I know that space is valuable, especially on a free forum
but how about links to Cos Hse & HMRC at the top of A/A with a narrative saying 'You may find the answer to your question here.'
Askers and answerers
Because AccountingWeb is supposed to be for accountants they expect that we know about those sites and have the initiative to use them.
I asked Nadia a question so it would be easier to know what experience she has but so far, despite her asking a question, she hasn't replied. It seems AccountingWeb is split between those who ask and those who answer.
Sir
I don’t get it.You lot are arguing away merrily here.Yet when I commented about 3 days ago about the questioner not knowing what the new VAT fraction is and the fact that that was as basic as it comes and only required the slightest of thought from anyone with just a little intelligence, then my comments were taken down. My first comments in about 2 years.The above even makes my point worse than was actually the case.I just wondered if anyone else thought standards within a question should be of the highest then people will be more inclined to spend their important/valuable time answering it or at least commenting on it to let them know where they stand.