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£100 flat rate penalty

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    £100 flat rate penalty

    Hi All,

    Its been a while.

    I haven't worked at all since Aug 2019.

    I sent my accountants everything necessary up to my year end in May 2020.
    I have an email from them in June 2020 saying they had received my accounting data and would be processed in due course but seems they weren't.

    In July 2020 I initiated closure of my ltd, still not there even now. I paid an upfront to cover the work to closure.
    Its been a slow process with very little communication from the accountants.

    I have just checked on the HMRC website and I have been given a penalty of £100 on 15th June 2021 for the Year to May 2020. This seems to be because no accounts have been submitted for that period yet.


    Is the accountant liable?

    Never has a man been heard to say on his death bed that he wishes he'd spent more time in the office.

    #2
    Who are you with?
    The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by Scrag Meister View Post

      Is the accountant liable?
      No. Your company is. HTH

      You might be able to get the accountants to cough up some money as a goodwill gesture. You might be able to sue them for breach of contract.
      But your LTD is still liable for the penalty. Why on earth would you think otherwise?
      See You Next Tuesday

      Comment


        #4
        Scragggy!!!!!

        Your accountants provide you a service to do your company accounts for you. So if your company accounts are wrong it's the company that foots the bill. Your LTD is liable. If the accountant has made a mistake then they are liable for that mistake and to correct it which should mean covering the loss you incurred for their mistake.
        'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

        Comment


          #5
          That certainly doesn't sound great! From the amount of the fine and dates, sounds like this is from HMRC for late corporation tax. I note you don't mention any late payment penalty from Companies House, which typically arrive 3 months earlier? Makes me wonder if perhaps your accountant did submit the accounts to Cos Hse, just not the CT return to HMRC. Alternatively I'd be concerned that you've got some bigger penalties sitting there from Cos Hse already too!

          I'd suggest:
          Step 1 - hassle them to check exactly what has/hasn't been done, and if anything's missing get the accounts/CT return finalised and submitted to Cos Hse/HMRC ASAP. Cos Hse penalties in particular can escalate quickly if further months go by with no submission. This bit is more urgent than who pays the fine(s).
          Step 2 - ask them to pay any fines. If they do, then to my mind yes they've been poor, but everyone makes mistakes, they'll have covered the damage, no long term harm done.

          Legally your company is liable for the fine, not your accountant...but assuming info is as per your OP (eg that they haven't asked you repeatedly a few questions/for more info that you've ignored...in which case I'd have much less sympathy!), then any half decent firm would be embarrassed and pay the fine on your behalf. If they don't, then to my mind they deserve some harsh naming and shaming/crappy public reviews (it's not us is it...)

          Comment


            #6
            Don't worry Maslins its not you.

            I have just managed to speak to HMRC directly and my accounts ARE outstanding from YE May 2020.

            I have emailed, attempted to ring the accountants and been on hold for 15+minutes a few times.

            I finally spoke to their "Best Advice" team and they have emailed the relevant team to call me back.

            Rhymes with "Beer Pie" part of P.a.r.a.s.o.l.

            Closure was initiated July 2020 and still not finalised.

            I paid for and had my Company Return submitted a couple of weeks back.

            Spoke to someone a week ago and am due a small refund for CT.

            Never has a man been heard to say on his death bed that he wishes he'd spent more time in the office.

            Comment


              #7
              I'm guessing by "Company Return" you mean the confirmation statement? That's a separate thing.

              If you haven't already, check that your statutory accounts for the period have been submitted to Companies House from here.

              If they haven't, afraid you've likely got a much bigger penalty than the HMRC one you're aware of, and potentially there's still quite a bit of work to be done on your figures.

              If they have, great, not so bad...probably just an oversight where your accountant did the Cos Hse submission but forgot the HMRC one.

              Comment

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