Accounts year end - does it matter?

jb1 · Aug 17, 2009

Hi,

I have to choose my company year end. The company started trading in June of this year and the LTD company was established in early June.

A lot of companies financial years run from April - March in line with the UK financial year. Does it make any difference when mine runs from - if it starts in June or April? Are there any advantages of either?

Thanks

David Griffiths · Aug 17, 2009

For companies the choice of year end has no bearing on the tax liability, in general terms.

It's normal to try to pick a year end that avoids busy times of the year. Most shops wouldn't want to be doing stocktakes on 31 December, at the height of the "January" sales, for example, and a garden centre is probably best advised to avoid 31 March for the same reason.

If you started trading in June and run accounts to the following 30 June you will actually need two corporation tax returns to go with one set of accounts. A corporation tax period cannot exceed 12 months, so if you start on 15 June for example, the first period runds from 15/05/09 to 14/06/10 and there's a short period from 15/06/10 to 30/06/10. That's a one off on starting to trade, and it settles down after that

elaine@cheapaccounting · Aug 17, 2009

If you do change the date remember to advise both HMRC and Co House.

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Accounts year end - does it matter?

jb1

David Griffiths

elaine@cheapaccounting

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