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View Full Version : Corporation tax - a few clarifications wanted please!


onesandnoughts
4th February 2006, 16:56
Hello everyone,

So, I'm trying to do my first ever set of company accounts and corporation tax calculations for my little company. I _think_ I've managed to get a reasonable handle on it, but there are a few things I just wanted to check.

Over the year, there were only a few different things going on in the accounts:

1. A loan - I loaned some of my personal money to the company to get it started.

2. Sales - I'm developing and selling software, and these were all electronic downloads - so no physical product or raw materials exist.

3. Service charges - I'm paying a third party company to handle order processing, and they of course charge for this. I'm also paying for web-hosting, etc.

4. Equipment purchases - A fair amount of computer hardware and various software (for software development and general business use, not for resale).

5. Training purchases - Relevant magazine subscriptions, and some training videos.

6. I have not taken _any_ money out of the company at all so far.


For my corporation tax, am I correct in the following:
A. Income is all money from sales, bank interest, etc, but not the loan (since it has to be repayed).
B. For allowable expenditure, I assume I can deduct all of item 3, and I can deduct 50% of item 4 as a first year SME capital allowance. I'm guessing that I can also deduct all of item 5 - but I'm not so sure.

Profit/Loss...
My balance sheet says that the company more or less broke even, with a very small retained profit. The loan plus income from sales was almost the same as the amount spent on equipment and service charges. Since the equipment was all bought new in the year, it doesn't have any depreciation recorded for the that year (should it have?)
However, for my Corp. tax, I'm making a significant loss, due to the 50% capital allowance outweighing the small amount of sales income.

C. It seems slightly odd to me that at the same time as my balance sheet reports a slight profit, my corp. tax claims a loss. I'm guessing that this is entirely reasonable/normal, but just wanted to check.

D. One other thing - at the moment I understand that I can make up to 10k profit with 0% corp. tax. I recall reading somewhere that as of this April this was going to be scrapped, and it would by 19% from the very first pound of profit... Is this true - I can't find any reference to it now.

Thanks for reading!

Steve

KM-Tiger
4th February 2006, 17:15
As you are referring to Corporation Tax then this is a Ltd company?

If so then you will need to prepare accounts to go to Companies House, as well as make a return for Corporation Tax.

Your turnover is probably well below requiring an audit, but I would suggest that you should consult an accountant.

onesandnoughts
4th February 2006, 17:43
As you are referring to Corporation Tax then this is a Ltd company?

If so then you will need to prepare accounts to go to Companies House, as well as make a return for Corporation Tax.

Your turnover is probably well below requiring an audit, but I would suggest that you should consult an accountant.

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, this is for a limited company - sorry, I should have been explicit about that.
I realise that I also need to provide accounts to companies house, but I'm in the size range where all they really want is an abbreviated balance sheet, so I'm not too concerned about that.

For subsequent years I probably will just go straight to an accountant, especially as things are going to be more complex and I'm going to try for a DTI R&D grant.

However, for this first year I wanted to do it myself because it's only small amounts of money, nothing complicated is going on, and I want to understand how it is done and what is going on.

Steve

KM-Tiger
4th February 2006, 18:53
For subsequent years I probably will just go straight to an accountant, especially as things are going to be more complex and I'm going to try for a DTI R&D grant.
Which is all the more reason for getting an accountant onboard now.

You are absolutely right in wanting to fully understand what is going on financially - it's vital to running a successful business - but accountancy is such a complex subject that it's almost impossible to know everthing yourself. Even after many years in business I'm always surprised by the insight my accountant gives me. Although you might have no tax liability now, proper planning for when you do incur tax liability will repay itself many times over.

If you have done most of the legwork, then a fee for completing your accounts will be modest, but with it will come the benefit of help towards your next phase of business.

gordonthegofor
4th February 2006, 22:01
If you intend to have a sucessful business employing many employees and great profits (beyond our wildest dreams) HIRE a Accountant in the long term you can't loose

I run a micro company (basicly just me) have been told consistently since I started running my own various businesses 25 years ago that I should use accountants.
So far I have employed accounants twice and both times they have charged me a lot more than the difference between what I thought I had to pay and what they claimed they would save me in tax

My rule of thumb is the length of time spent finding
1 tax information
2 understanding it
3 putitng the accounts into a presentable format

balanced against my earning power

I reckon to spend about 2 weeks a year doing the work an accountant would charge me for. This at the moment is more than I earn so I am £ in

Businesss is good so I will soon need to employ one though

Joyous
4th February 2006, 22:21
For my corporation tax, am I correct in the following:
A. Income is all money from sales, bank interest, etc, but not the loan (since it has to be repayed).Don't include bank interest here, it goes at the bottom of the p&l account under interest receivable.

B. For allowable expenditure, I assume I can deduct all of item 3, and I can deduct 50% of item 4 as a first year SME capital allowance. I'm guessing that I can also deduct all of item 5 - but I'm not so sure.All of items 3 and 5 are deductable. Dont deduct any of item 4, you'll need to do a separate capital allowances computation for them.


My balance sheet says that the company more or less broke even, with a very small retained profit.
It's your p&l account that will tell youif you've made a profit - not your balance sheet.

Since the equipment was all bought new in the year, it doesn't have any depreciation recorded for the that year (should it have?)Yes it should. Common practice is to charge a full years worth in the first year, otherwise pro rate it for the number of months.


C. It seems slightly odd to me that at the same time as my balance sheet reports a slight profit, my corp. tax claims a loss. I'm guessing that this is entirely reasonable/normal, but just wanted to check.It's common for accounting and taxable profits to differ due to the tax treatment of various items of income and expenditure.

D. One other thing - at the moment I understand that I can make up to 10k profit with 0% corp. tax. I recall reading somewhere that as of this April this was going to be scrapped, and it would by 19% from the very first pound of profit... Is this true - I can't find any reference to it now.Yep, the 0% band is disappearing from 01/04/06. It was in the pre budget report.

My advice - get yourself an accountant. You'll find it easier to figure out what's going on with someone to guide you through it rather than poring through books.

Regards

Joy

onesandnoughts
7th February 2006, 18:35
Hi everyone,
Thanks for the replies, especially to Joy for the specifics.
All taken on board and digested...

Steve