We have taken on a new corporate client who wishes 2 years accounts brought up to date as the previous agent has "vanished". Client suspected nothing had been submitted to HMRC or Co House for those years as they had heard nothing from former advisor for sometime despite calls, emails etc. Nothing has gone to HMRC but Co House has had abbrievated accounts although client has not approved and has no idea where the figures have come from. Is it possible to have the figures at Co House restated in these circumstances?
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Yes and No
Strictly, no, information cannot be ammended.
Practically, yes, new amended accounts can be submitted.
In the old days this was done by simply writing "ammended" in big letters on the front on the accounts, in these days of iXBRL I don't know the practicalities of actually submitting the revised statements, but I sure a quick check on the Co House website will be able to tell you.
Regards
Steve
Yes you can
As Steve says, they must be clearly labelled as amending .
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/infoAndGuide/faq/amendingAccounts.shtml
Fines
I am not sure on this but I have an idea that the client can be fined for late delivery of accounts.
I would appreciate if anyone could confirm.
I don't think so..
as long as the original accounts (though wrong and apparently unapproved by client) were submitted within time.
SA
amended accounts regulations 2008
is where you need to look (think 2008)
You need to state the reasons why the previous accounts were wrong.
I don't think you will be fined as companies house accepted the accounts on time and there is no penalty for an amendment.
However why bother companies house do not care whether the accounts are right wrong or completely fictitious, so unless this is affecting the clients credit rating there would be little point. (most of the information at companies house is incorrect anyway so they are not alone)
Would amend for HMRC and client though.
was the previous agent even an accountant ?
If you do amend the accounts and file at companies house I would point out that the orriginals were not approved by the director and therefore have been filed by a naughty person.... criminal offence ??
I thought ...
... the figure at HMRC must be the same as those at Companies House, if any one checks you woud be open for an investigation!
nope
You can pretty much file what you like at companies house.... there is no cross checking.
You are required to have GAAP compliant accounts for the corporation tax return and computations otherwise in theory you might get an investigation....as if !
Unfortunately HMRC do not understand this concept so have no idea whether accounts are compliant or not and also seem not to check... so you can file what you like with them as well....
Has anyone seen an investigation started because of horribly wrong accounts ?
I agree incorrect accounts should result in an enquiry .... but in my experience they do not.
HMRC would seem to deliberately ignore the obvious cases out of sheer awkwardness.
That may be the case now
But I think going forward things may change, HMRC do seem to have someone with a brain in charge now, and they seem to have learned how to use the internet and with iXBRL filing it wont be that long before the Companies House and HMRC systems will automatically cross sheck documents.
The other point is lenders, who will cross check, and if you present them with as different set of accounts to those at Companies House you will probably end up with the SFO visiting in the wee small hours on the back of a MLR!
As was touched on in a different thread in respect of robbing a bank, the same ethos applies, especially when one is a professional - one should do what is right, not the least you can expect to get away with.
Amended set of accounts vs prior year adjustment
Useful reading through everyone's comments but I'm missing something I think. Shouldn't all this be dealt with via prior year adjustments by restating comparative's in next set of accounts? Perhaps someone could give some examples of when accounts would be amended vs PYA restatement of comparative's?