"Accounts preparation" could reasonably mean that you input the transactions rather than just the totals, and that was what I thought for too many years. As I now understand, it replicates the job that a secretary might have done in the past to type written workings into a presentable format.
Yes it does make us look good because it puts a 'skin' on the workings, with well thought out, consistent typefaces etc. It does this not just for companies, but for whichever entity is concerned.
The next time someone on this forum reaches out in humility to show sympathy and understanding to an enquirer, will you bite their head off in such a bitchy fashion? Or are you such a know-all?
As a recent convert to TaxCalc (five years) I wish I had used it before. But what put me off was that I misunderstood its purpose, as you seem to. To my shame and loss I did not understand that Accounts Preparation software is not about book-keeping but about putting a skin on things to make us look good, however we prepare the data, and squirting the results to HMRC and Companies House as little packets of XBRL data.
I just adapted our spreadsheets to produce Trial Balances with the right codes attached, saved them as CSV, then import them to Tax Calc. Add the various notes and you are in business. Latterly TaxCalc has been set up to directly link with FreeAgent, Quickbooks etc.
For Self Assessment where possible I just enter the three lines for Self Employment and after August each year the Fetch feature obtains PAYE data from HMRC.
You can see that TaxCalc is having its feet and toes nibbled by the other suppliers who are producing accounts and Tax Returns directly within their own software. I see our usage declining as we translate to FreeAgent. It is a tough old World!
Here is the result of my researches, to help others avoid time-wasting and 45 minutes phoning the help line.
It is worth remembering that a Trust will use the same Government Gateway credential to access both its Business Tax account (if it has and needs one) and Trust Registration – but you cannot see one in the other. The link !) to “Register and Maintain a Trust” is https://www.gov.uk/guidance/manage-your-trusts-registration-service
Scroll down the page and press the green button . If you are already in the Business Tax Account something weird then happens - as if by magic, and without logging in again, you should get the following message;
“The trust with the Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) 1234567890 has been linked with this account”
Agent authorisation.
If you try this before the Trust registration has been ‘claimed’ as above, it will not work. Once it has, you can log in to your Agent Services Account and create a link which you then send to the client. They can use it to grant authorisation by going back in with their credentials
Interesting. You say that you "operate through a limited company" and "I prepare my accounts all in Excel". Are you new to all this or have you been going some years? If the latter you must have some degree of knowledge to pull this feat off and we accountants will wonder how you have done this.
If the former, why use Excel? Just get a NatWest account and use FreeAgent.
Edit
I see that you have been on AccountingWeb since 2011 and describe yourself as a Blogger. Is this a genuine post or do I smell a rat?
My researches show that HMRC is allocating payments to 'oldest first' and that means that if someone has an arrangement to pay under the Covid concession, the current bill goes unpaid
But this does not explain the surcharges for those who have always been compliant - just had another one in this afternoon. Something bad is going on.
I doubt if HMRC would raise an enquiry for an amount of interest that falls below the exemption and if they did it is likely to be the new-style "you got it wrong, please agree to the amendment" - so I lose no sleep over this. For most people getting 0.1%, £1000 would equal £1 Million in the bank!
This does remind me of my days in the Inland Revenue when enquiries were launched on the basis of forms 8(cb) - for younger readers this was a notification from a 'clearing bank' on a piece of paper about the side of a DL envelope.
It was not uncommon for interest to arise on the proceeds of a property sale of say £750 early in the tax year, and included in the solicitor's completion statement. Forgotten by Tax Return time. At 15% you'd get that in a year on £5000 so £60,000 for a month would give the same result.
Hands up here from Captain Foresight. Saw this coming in 1996, converted all clients to 31 March (at considerable cost in my time) and have had a strict 10 month filing window ever since. Stressful for me, but in the clients' interest.
BTW had fun in the previous years, as you say, manipulating the old system. Once dropped £100,000 out of charge using those old rules.
Possible, but unlikely as we have 25 years of inflation since 1996 and businesses have a habit of growing
One method of mitigation is to let the business trade on at a much reduced rate before cessation. This is one mitigation device open to this who see the problem coming
Whose fault is it that this client has not converted on better terms to 31 March many years ago? From your question you don't understand the system (sorry to be harsh).
A well advised client might claim against someone's PI policy for this poor advice, but then perhaps the originator of the problem is off the scene and you just inherited it
Then again, if it got to Court there would be a plentiful supply of apologists (many post here) to explain it away as not being stupid negligence .......
My answers
Thanks for the sarcasm, but I can take you on;
"Accounts preparation" could reasonably mean that you input the transactions rather than just the totals, and that was what I thought for too many years. As I now understand, it replicates the job that a secretary might have done in the past to type written workings into a presentable format.
Yes it does make us look good because it puts a 'skin' on the workings, with well thought out, consistent typefaces etc. It does this not just for companies, but for whichever entity is concerned.
The next time someone on this forum reaches out in humility to show sympathy and understanding to an enquirer, will you bite their head off in such a bitchy fashion? Or are you such a know-all?
As a recent convert to TaxCalc (five years) I wish I had used it before. But what put me off was that I misunderstood its purpose, as you seem to. To my shame and loss I did not understand that Accounts Preparation software is not about book-keeping but about putting a skin on things to make us look good, however we prepare the data, and squirting the results to HMRC and Companies House as little packets of XBRL data.
I just adapted our spreadsheets to produce Trial Balances with the right codes attached, saved them as CSV, then import them to Tax Calc. Add the various notes and you are in business. Latterly TaxCalc has been set up to directly link with FreeAgent, Quickbooks etc.
For Self Assessment where possible I just enter the three lines for Self Employment and after August each year the Fetch feature obtains PAYE data from HMRC.
You can see that TaxCalc is having its feet and toes nibbled by the other suppliers who are producing accounts and Tax Returns directly within their own software. I see our usage declining as we translate to FreeAgent. It is a tough old World!
Here is the result of my researches, to help others avoid time-wasting and 45 minutes phoning the help line.
It is worth remembering that a Trust will use the same Government Gateway credential to access both its Business Tax account (if it has and needs one) and Trust Registration – but you cannot see one in the other. The link !) to “Register and Maintain a Trust” is https://www.gov.uk/guidance/manage-your-trusts-registration-service
Scroll down the page and press the green button . If you are already in the Business Tax Account something weird then happens - as if by magic, and without logging in again, you should get the following message;
“The trust with the Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) 1234567890 has been linked with this account”
Agent authorisation.
If you try this before the Trust registration has been ‘claimed’ as above, it will not work. Once it has, you can log in to your Agent Services Account and create a link which you then send to the client. They can use it to grant authorisation by going back in with their credentials
Interesting. You say that you "operate through a limited company" and "I prepare my accounts all in Excel". Are you new to all this or have you been going some years? If the latter you must have some degree of knowledge to pull this feat off and we accountants will wonder how you have done this.
If the former, why use Excel? Just get a NatWest account and use FreeAgent.
Edit
I see that you have been on AccountingWeb since 2011 and describe yourself as a Blogger. Is this a genuine post or do I smell a rat?
My researches show that HMRC is allocating payments to 'oldest first' and that means that if someone has an arrangement to pay under the Covid concession, the current bill goes unpaid
But this does not explain the surcharges for those who have always been compliant - just had another one in this afternoon. Something bad is going on.
So can anyone answer my question? Does anyone have current experience of industry practice?
I doubt if HMRC would raise an enquiry for an amount of interest that falls below the exemption and if they did it is likely to be the new-style "you got it wrong, please agree to the amendment" - so I lose no sleep over this. For most people getting 0.1%, £1000 would equal £1 Million in the bank!
This does remind me of my days in the Inland Revenue when enquiries were launched on the basis of forms 8(cb) - for younger readers this was a notification from a 'clearing bank' on a piece of paper about the side of a DL envelope.
It was not uncommon for interest to arise on the proceeds of a property sale of say £750 early in the tax year, and included in the solicitor's completion statement. Forgotten by Tax Return time. At 15% you'd get that in a year on £5000 so £60,000 for a month would give the same result.
Hands up here from Captain Foresight. Saw this coming in 1996, converted all clients to 31 March (at considerable cost in my time) and have had a strict 10 month filing window ever since. Stressful for me, but in the clients' interest.
BTW had fun in the previous years, as you say, manipulating the old system. Once dropped £100,000 out of charge using those old rules.
Possible, but unlikely as we have 25 years of inflation since 1996 and businesses have a habit of growing
One method of mitigation is to let the business trade on at a much reduced rate before cessation. This is one mitigation device open to this who see the problem coming
Whose fault is it that this client has not converted on better terms to 31 March many years ago? From your question you don't understand the system (sorry to be harsh).
A well advised client might claim against someone's PI policy for this poor advice, but then perhaps the originator of the problem is off the scene and you just inherited it
Then again, if it got to Court there would be a plentiful supply of apologists (many post here) to explain it away as not being stupid negligence .......