Annual Return - self complete?

[a8ree]

I have a shared limited company 50/50 with another director. It was setup with the intention of starting a new project. We setup a company bank account and only have 3 transactions over the year!

Is it simple enough to complete the annual return myself without involving an accountant? 99.9% of the posts here seem to say 'who is your accountant' but if its only 3 transactions, is it necessary??

I see from the guide from HRMC, that there is a PDF template - is it all self explanatory? I am not the secretary and haven't managed to get access.

Any guidance would be much appreciated.


Cheers

[VectraMan]

Yes. And no it's not self-explanatory, and the help is written for accountants so is no help whatsoever.

[Jeremiah@RHJAccountants]

First off i presume you mean the annual accounts as the annual return is completely different to this.

Your annual return is required to be filed at Companies House on a yearly basis. It is simply a snapshot of your company information on a particular date. The annual return costs £13.

The following questions need to be answered for the annual return which is very simple:

name of the company,
registered number,
type of company,
date to which the annual return is made-up,
registered office address of the company,
details of the company secretary (if applicable)
directors and the principal business activity of the company.

Now for your annual accounts the following:

Prepare Year end accounts (these are submitted with CT600 to HMRC)
Prepare and file abbreviated accounts with Companies House
Prepare and file CT600 Corporation tax return with HMRC including iXBRL filling( most likely as this is your first year of trade you will have to prepare two periods, as HMRC will not allow the CT600 over 12 months).

Your statutory accounts must meet either accounting standards:

International Financial Reporting Standards
UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice

You can do all of this yourself using companies house filling for accounts and HMRC for CT600 (which in my opinion is terrible to use!!)

As accountants we use accounting and tax software to file.

All of this may be simple for you too do, however it may not and i have seen so many clients try to do this themselves and make mistakes that cost them down the line.

If i were you speak to your accountant and i am sure he or she could do this for a a fee that is not outrageous.

For example we would charge around £350 just to give you an idea i would expect no more than £500 though.

Any more and i think your being overcharged.

Hope this helps

[northernladuk]

First off i presume you mean the annual accounts as the annual return is completely different to this.

And at that point the advice is to go get yourself an accountant....

[Jeremiah@RHJAccountants]

And at that point the advice is to go get yourself an accountant....

I very much agree would of made my post a lot shorter!

[a8ree]

Thanks for the heads up....I will contact my accountant!

[prozak]

I have a shared limited company 50/50 with another director. It was setup with the intention of starting a new project. We setup a company bank account and only have 3 transactions over the year!

Is it simple enough to complete the annual return myself without involving an accountant? 99.9% of the posts here seem to say 'who is your accountant' but if its only 3 transactions, is it necessary??

I see from the guide from HRMC, that there is a PDF template - is it all self explanatory? I am not the secretary and haven't managed to get access.

Any guidance would be much appreciated.


Cheers

I would suggest you get the form from HMRC.

In my opinion it is very straight forward. I just did mine with the combined accounts and CT600 and it took an hour. But all the info is to hand in quickbooks.

[JB3000]

I have a shared limited company 50/50 with another director. It was setup with the intention of starting a new project. We setup a company bank account and only have 3 transactions over the year!

Is it simple enough to complete the annual return myself without involving an accountant? 99.9% of the posts here seem to say 'who is your accountant' but if its only 3 transactions, is it necessary??

I see from the guide from HRMC, that there is a PDF template - is it all self explanatory? I am not the secretary and haven't managed to get access.

Any guidance would be much appreciated.


Cheers

The fact that you are asking for permission from a bunch of anonymous strangers on an unregulated website says it all................. SMH; get an accountant for crying out loud.

For 3 transactions that cost should be circa £200+VAT; anything more (for 3 transactions) is a rip off.

[VectraMan]

The fact that you are asking for permission from a bunch of anonymous strangers on an unregulated website says it all................. SMH; get an accountant for crying out loud.

For 3 transactions that cost should be circa £200+VAT; anything more (for 3 transactions) is a rip off.

Why do you think the number of transactions is relevant?

Why not download the form and find a sample to use for reference. And then if you're really incapable of working out what to do, pay somebody to do it.

[kaiser78]

I completed my personal self-assessment return a couple of years ago myself - got one tickbox wrong and had HMRC crawling all over my accounts for 6+ months.

Sort of mistake you only make once...