Tax return

[Lucie Brooke]

Hi

We are in the process of filing our end of year accounts online. Last year this was completed by an accountant following a donation which covered their fee. This year (2nd year) we do not have the funds and are hoping to be able to complete it ourselves.

Our accounts have been prepared by our Treasurer (Word doc) and filed with Companies House.

I have been advised by an accountant that to complete our tax return online we need a 'tagged' file and that to prepare the file will cost £150 plus vat.

We are a very small CiC filing accounts as a micro entity - I therefore wondered if a PDF version of our accounts would be accepted.

I called the HMRC helpline and Corporation Tax department had no idea what a tagged file /  iXBRL was and put me through to the online help section.

They in turn looked up info on the HMRC website! and sited one document that says 'fully tagged' files are not yet compulsory...and suggested a PDF "should be ok". As the document she was reading from the HMRC site said 'fully tagged files' are not yet compulsory, it suggested to me that some level of tagging is still required - though as I have no real idea what this means, i'm not sure, It was very clear the the HMRC online advisor also did not know...

Any advice very much appreciated

Many thanks

[Heidi Fisher]

It's virtually impossible to file your tax return without using some form of software and it is easier and quicker to pay an accountant to do this in most cases as tagging the items in your accounts manually takes ages and you would still need to buy some software or formatted spreadsheet to do this anyway. The only other option is to get HMRC's permission to file paper-based accounts and tax return.

[Lucie Brooke]

Many thanks for your reply Heidi

Does the £150 plus vat quote sound reasonable to you (we're based on London)? As I have no real understanding of what's involved , I don't know how long or complicated a task it is.

We are a small CiC with basic year end records filed as a micro entity

[Andrew Fleet]

Hi Lucie, as Heidi says you will need software to do this and £150+VAT is a very good price for piece of mind knowing it has been submitted correctly. Thanks, Andy

[Lucie Brooke]

Many thanks Andy - much appreciated