Non-trading company, no employees - "scheduled charges", EPC

[matei]

Hi all,

I've got my ltd co idling at the moment, not trading, no employees. I'm paying my accountant a minimum fee to keep ltd co open, file returns etc, as I intend on returning to contracting in several months.

HMRC was due to send me a statutory payment refund in Feb/Mar, however when I inquired as to the holdup they told me that this was on hold, due to "specified charges" being levied against my account because they'd not received FPS for the first two months of the year.

Explained that ltd co isn't trading, have no employees at the moment, was advised by HMRC that the accountant should've known better and filed an EPS.

No experience with this - that is why I hired an accountant. Does this sound correct? From the googling I've done on the subject, this sounds to be in the ballpark.

Spoke to the accounting co. and they didn't seem to know what I was talking about though, which is somewhat worrying.

** forgot to add that HMRC sent a letter (to accountant, where ltd is registered) on the 22nd, again accountancy has no idea of its existance. :-(

[Patrick@Intouch]

As the PAYE scheme is still active then your accountant should have been filing an EPS each month for you declaring that there was no activity to HMRC. With some accountants and depending on the specifics this may be your responsibility during an inactive period but it sounds like they have just dropped the ball here.

If they do now file the EPS's that are due stating that there was no activity then the specified charges should be dropped and the refund become available for issue.

[matei]

Thanks for the info. I wasn't told that I'd be responsible for filing said forms, surely they've been filing other things in the interim, but one would think that in the spirit of customer service and repeat/continued business that they would at least give a heads up if I'm supposed to handle such duties.

As the PAYE scheme is still active then your accountant should have been filing an EPS each month for you declaring that there was no activity to HMRC. With some accountants and depending on the specifics this may be your responsibility during an inactive period but it sounds like they have just dropped the ball here.

If they do now file the EPS's that are due stating that there was no activity then the specified charges should be dropped and the refund become available for issue.

[Patrick@Intouch]

I agree that, unless your accountant told you that this would be responsibility, they should have made these submissions for you. Communication really is the key here, but more worryingly is that they seemed no to know what you were talking about when you mentioned this to them.