Small charities let off iXBRL filing

Charities today - small companies tomorrow? Are we going to see further slippage of the iXBRL timetable between now and 1 April 2011? It doesn't help small firms struggling with SA filing who are also reluctantly having to sort out iXBRL filing systems at the same time. Now some will be wondering if all the extra software investment is actually going to be necessary!

Good news but what happens to the funds which may have already been spent by charities in preparation for iXBRL filing?  Is this recoverable/deductible in any way?

For small companies, xbrl filing will hopefully mean pressing a new button on Sage, IRIS etc and getting the accounts out in much the same way that we get them in pdf format at the moment.  Sage haven't got their xbrl version out yet, but hopefully they will do soon.

Charity accounts are much more complicated, and I don't know of any software package that can do anything more than the most basic charity accounts.  Usually we have to do an extended trial balance in Excel and prepare the accounts in Word.  Xbrl would mean sending that word document off to a manual tagging service every year, and that is an additional cost that brings no benefit to the charity and means less charitable funds available to help people.

I am pleased to hear the news about charities, but what about small clubs and associations who do not prepare accounts in CA format and only pay corporation tax on what are at the moment very small amounts of bank interest received. This exemption should be extended to them as well. 

... and what about companies whose accounts are too simple even to require Sage, IRIS etc., and which currently use just Excel, or even pen-and-paper? They won't get any button to press to churn out iXBRL accounts.

They will use HMRC's pdf template to generate iXBRL accounts.

  Does anyone know at this stage whether the small charity exemption applies to CASCs?

HMRC's Beginner's Guide on page 11 sets out various items that will mean you can't use the HMRC Service.  This includes a Balance Sheet with a Share Premium figure.  I expect this could affect many small companies.  Do they have to invest in an all-singing-all-dancing third party supply?  Again a bit unfair.