Bad debts and CT

[SackmanandCo]

yes, re do companies house accounts

[VectraMan]

You can write off the oustanding amount as a bad debt.

Just done the 08/09 CT return (full of zeros) and that had things suggesting you could claim back losses from a previous year. But I know from experience HMRC have a fine first, provide information second approach so I'm wary of just ticking boxes because you inevitably only find out about the 10 other forms you were meant to submit when it's too late.

Do I need to redo the accounts submitted to Companies House if I do this?

[SackmanandCo]

You can write off the oustanding amount as a bad debt.

[doodab]

I would think that if the company isn't dormant you'll need to submit accounts and file tax returns for 08/09 and 09/10 anyway. If you get everything right, that should take care of it.

I would suggest looking at the corporation tax return forms (CT600) and seeing how daunting they are.

[VectraMan]

This is for a Plan B co. that I started with somebody else as a 50/50 split a couple of years ago. In the first year (07/08) we invoiced about £7K, but only ever received about £2K. I've actually carried on doing the same thing, but the other guy didn't want to continue so I've been doing that through plan A co., but we kept the original company going in the hope that the money would turn up.

The client company is sort of still going in a very small way, and we did recently receive a small (£400) payment. But I think the chances of getting the money is small, and keeping going is not worth the hassle (and I think I've just got us a fine by forgetting to submit the accounts).

But the problem is we had to pay CT based on the ~£7K profit, about £1500. It'd obviously be nice to "write off" (if that's the right term) the nearly £~4.5K of that that we never received and get a refund on the tax.

Given the sums involved paying an accountant is not cost effective.

Any suggestions on how best to sort out the mess?

Ta.