Dividends sos

Dividends sos

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Hello All

I'm hoping some one can help as soon as possible.

My accountant has just prepared my final accounts for approval and seeing the profits made, I asked if I could pay myself some dividend from the retained profits. My accountant told me this wouldn't be possible as we were already past the year end. My year end is 30 Nov but I only just received the accounts. I asked what the deadline was but he just said it was too late. Is it really or is he being lazy? I can't seem to find any dates reference anywhere.

Thanks.

Replies (11)

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By Tim Vane
15th Apr 2015 15:02

Of course you can pay a dividend, you just can't pay it in the past, unless you have access to a worm-hole.

I think there may be a worm-hole app for the iPhone 6, but I've never tried it.

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By johngroganjga
15th Apr 2015 15:12

You must be misunderstanding something.

What difference do you think it makes which year's accounts a dividend paid to you today is included in?

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By Chipette
15th Apr 2015 15:22

Just a guess

I wonder if the accountant meant it is now too late to pay dividends for the 2014/15 tax year ended on 5th April 2015. 

Only the accountant and the OP could confirm this.

 

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By johngroganjga
15th Apr 2015 15:24

Just to be clear - what your accountant is telling you is that any dividend you pay now won't be included in last year's accounts. He isn't telling you that you can't pay a dividend.

Is that what you are misunderstanding?

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By andy.partridge
16th Apr 2015 09:40

Best to talk it through with him rather than post here.

After all, he might be reading this and  be less than happy to think you believe him to be lazy. Equally you might be mortified if you discovered he had read this. It can make hitherto good relationships awkward.

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Out of my mind
By runningmate
15th Apr 2015 17:15

Dividend now

If you pay a dividend now it will be shown in the company's accounts for the year to 30 November 2015 & your income tax return for the year ended 5 April 2016.

There is no reason why you should not now pay a dividend which is justified by previous profits (including those for the year ended 30 November 2014).

The deadline to pay a dividend to be shown in the accounts for the year to 30 November 2015 is 30 November 2015.

RM

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By SandyCooper
15th Apr 2015 18:25

Thank you all..

Yes, I did misunderstand. I thought I was being clever when I did some research and found out dividends could be declared at any point. My accountant said it had to have been declared by year end and that backdating was frowned on unless there was a wormhole (thanks, Tim) to disappear into when the tax man found out. Shame really, as I wanted the funds reflected in my 2014/2015 SA because I want a substantial sum out in 2015/2016 and the combined tax will be crippling. Oh well. Gotta be on the ball next time. @andy, yes I have rotten egg on my face as he did pick up this thread. I thought he was too lazy, emmm busy, to browse online. I promised him a bottle of very expensive spirit so all is now well, I think.

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Replying to ohwhatnow:
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By andy.partridge
16th Apr 2015 12:03

No problem

SandyCooper wrote:

@andy, yes I have rotten egg on my face as he did pick up this thread. I thought he was too lazy, emmm busy, to browse online. I promised him a bottle of very expensive spirit so all is now well, I think.


Thanks, Sandy, I'll look forward to it.
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By Jekyll and Hyde
15th Apr 2015 18:28

Is the accountant being lazy?
I agree with the above, in that a dividend declared/paid on 15/4/15 can only be allocated to today.

When did you engage with the accountant? What ta planning advice did the accountant give prior to 5/4/15 Or indeed prior to the year end of 30/11/14.

it may be that you have engaged with the accountant too late. or that indeed something sooner could have happened to maximise tax planning. This may be a failure on your behalf, the accountants behalf or perhaps judt bad timings.

Sadly, and I am using hindsight here (however use foresight in practice) but a dicussion in dividend payment planning should have occurred when you were taken on as client and a recap before 5/4/15.

I am not blaming the accountant here as they may have explained this to younand you may have not wanted to pay them to do the necessary work.

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By Tim Vane
15th Apr 2015 18:33

Don't buy him too expensive a bottle. He could have been a bit more pro-active in advising you to pay an interim dividend before 5 April.

Optimising the extraction of profits in the most tax efficient manner is one of the things you should be paying him for, and he should have advised you of this in plenty of time.

Or perhaps he did and you didn't find the time to read his correspondence (this is what often happens unfortunately).

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By paulwakefield1
16th Apr 2015 12:56

I love a

happy ending.  :-)

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