My feeling has always been that is a disallowable expense for tax purposes. I just wanted to be sure by checking it out, with the Director being named as well as the Company, in case that changed things. Thank you everyone for your help.
What has happened is that person A (The Seller) incurred legal costs when suing Person B (The Holding Company) and Person C (The Director and Guarantor).
The Holding Company (Person B), paid thousands to reimburse legal costs to Person A (The Seller), but on the County Court Order, there were 2 Defendents named (Person B the Holding Company) and Person C (the Director who was guarantor).
My question is really, can I put the whole reimbursed legal costs paid to the seller (Person A), by the Holding Company (Person B), as in my view the reason for late payment was that some sort of squabble ensued prior to the court action, and the Director (Person C) delayed matters.
The Court order states that the Defendants are to pay etc.....
I am pondering whether none, half or all of these legal costs can be claimed as an allowable expense for tax purposes within the Ltd Company (Holding Company). Or should the fees paid go against the Directors Loan Account?
The digital link is the point when the hard copy invoice gets recorded to sage. If the client wants to keep record of sales on a spreadsheet that's separate.
Im guessing they don't file their own vat returns but send you the info, so the digital link is when you input the invoice in to sage.
After posting the original question here about a client using Excel as a template to raise sales invoices, I finally received a call back from an MTD Technician in the HMRC VAT department, who said that under section 3.2.1 (Digital links) where it states
'A digital link is one where a transfer or exchange of data is made, or can be made, electronically between software progams.'
…..and that by putting figures into a template in excel (a compatible software package), this information would have to be converted to a CSV to import into Sage as an example, and that I am not permitted to enter the sales invoices manually from hard copies that have been printed from Excel.
I have also read further on amongst the answers, and someone else has been verbally given the same information as below:
_______________________
By Di 21st Feb 2019 14:31
I have spoken to the vat helpline and they said that if the invoices were written up manually by the client and I then key them into MTD software, that was acceptable. However if my client kept invoices on an excel template in any form I could not then key them in again, there would have to be the digital link between excel and the software. How many of us have clients whose sole concern is raising sales invoices in the simplest manner possible and letting us sort out the rest. I do know that if we let the clients loose on all areas of the software we are going to be spending ages trying to sort out the mess!
____________________________
Therefore I can only conclude that the client will have to use WORD going forward for sales invoice templates, however, HMRC say that inciting the client to use an incompatible package in light of the Excel digital link, would be going against MTD rules, to get round this.
This is so frustrating as a lot of clients just aren't computer literate enough to deal with this and its going to take so much more time on our part sorting it out.
Thanks for your replies everyone. Do we know yet what information is going to be submitted. I have also looked at bridging software from Absolute for the spreadsheet work clients, and it seems to bring in boxes 1 to 9 figures for the submission when you watch their video of it. Is MTD extracting more than the 9 box figures going forward and if so, does anyone know what is it extracting?
Thanks for your replies. Its actually quite a lot (thousands). But the strict method works out best, I have found out I can process the P11D(b) on a manual on-line form covering them all including this one (as it won't reflect the D/L form so I can't process using this method), and send this P11D in the post.
I have looked this up and it depends if they have a contract of service...…
The Pensions Regulator has indicated that office-holders – essentially non-executive directors and company secretaries – will also normally fall outside the scope of AE.
You say there is no employment contract, so Auto-enrolment should only apply to them, if they have a “contract of service” for all or part of their duties, given that this will make them an employee.
If unsure of something such as this, I would always phone the pension regulator for confirmation to save any problems down the line and make a note of your call.
My answers
My feeling has always been that is a disallowable expense for tax purposes. I just wanted to be sure by checking it out, with the Director being named as well as the Company, in case that changed things. Thank you everyone for your help.
Hello
Thanks for your replies.
What has happened is that person A (The Seller) incurred legal costs when suing Person B (The Holding Company) and Person C (The Director and Guarantor).
The Holding Company (Person B), paid thousands to reimburse legal costs to Person A (The Seller), but on the County Court Order, there were 2 Defendents named (Person B the Holding Company) and Person C (the Director who was guarantor).
My question is really, can I put the whole reimbursed legal costs paid to the seller (Person A), by the Holding Company (Person B), as in my view the reason for late payment was that some sort of squabble ensued prior to the court action, and the Director (Person C) delayed matters.
The Court order states that the Defendants are to pay etc.....
I am pondering whether none, half or all of these legal costs can be claimed as an allowable expense for tax purposes within the Ltd Company (Holding Company). Or should the fees paid go against the Directors Loan Account?
Thanks in advance.
Di
That's what they said to me on the technical MTD helpline too!
After posting the original question here about a client using Excel as a template to raise sales invoices, I finally received a call back from an MTD Technician in the HMRC VAT department, who said that under section 3.2.1 (Digital links) where it states
'A digital link is one where a transfer or exchange of data is made, or can be made, electronically between software progams.'
…..and that by putting figures into a template in excel (a compatible software package), this information would have to be converted to a CSV to import into Sage as an example, and that I am not permitted to enter the sales invoices manually from hard copies that have been printed from Excel.
I have also read further on amongst the answers, and someone else has been verbally given the same information as below:
_______________________
By Di 21st Feb 2019 14:31
I have spoken to the vat helpline and they said that if the invoices were written up manually by the client and I then key them into MTD software, that was acceptable. However if my client kept invoices on an excel template in any form I could not then key them in again, there would have to be the digital link between excel and the software. How many of us have clients whose sole concern is raising sales invoices in the simplest manner possible and letting us sort out the rest. I do know that if we let the clients loose on all areas of the software we are going to be spending ages trying to sort out the mess!
____________________________
Therefore I can only conclude that the client will have to use WORD going forward for sales invoice templates, however, HMRC say that inciting the client to use an incompatible package in light of the Excel digital link, would be going against MTD rules, to get round this.
This is so frustrating as a lot of clients just aren't computer literate enough to deal with this and its going to take so much more time on our part sorting it out.
That would be really helpful, thanks.
Thanks for your replies everyone. Do we know yet what information is going to be submitted. I have also looked at bridging software from Absolute for the spreadsheet work clients, and it seems to bring in boxes 1 to 9 figures for the submission when you watch their video of it. Is MTD extracting more than the 9 box figures going forward and if so, does anyone know what is it extracting?
I concur with DJKL, you would always calculate based on actual pay, rather than maternity pay received so that they are not disadvantaged.
Glad I am not the only one who doesn't know then.
Thanks for your replies. Its actually quite a lot (thousands). But the strict method works out best, I have found out I can process the P11D(b) on a manual on-line form covering them all including this one (as it won't reflect the D/L form so I can't process using this method), and send this P11D in the post.
I have looked this up and it depends if they have a contract of service...…
The Pensions Regulator has indicated that office-holders – essentially non-executive directors and company secretaries – will also normally fall outside the scope of AE.
You say there is no employment contract, so Auto-enrolment should only apply to them, if they have a “contract of service” for all or part of their duties, given that this will make them an employee.
If unsure of something such as this, I would always phone the pension regulator for confirmation to save any problems down the line and make a note of your call.