Stuck on CT600 'Adjustments' page

[pamw1001]

I'm a small company with simple accounts and I've successfully submitted my Annual Returns and Corporation Tax Return for about 15 years now.
Last year, I tried hard to do my Corporation Tax on line, but eventually gave up and submitted on paper.
This year I've got to do it on line, but I can't get past the dreaded red error box on the 'Adjustments' page.

1. I wrote off some obsolete stock, so have a 'Disposals' value as part of my Operating Expenses.
2. I entered this in Box CP33 under 'General Administrative Expenses > Profits/losses on disposal of assets'. At this point, all the figures tally with the accounts as entered using the HMRC template.
3. When I get to the 'Adjustments' page, I duly enter the same figure in Box CP51 'Net loss on sale of fixed assets'. The 'Help' for this box specifically states that 'In most cases the figure you enter should equal the entry in Box CP33.' Mine does exactly that.
4. When, however, I enter £0.00 in the 'Net profit on sale of fixed assets' box, I get an X:Error "You cannot have both a net loss and and a net profit on a sale of fixed assets."
I HAVEN'T!!! - but I whatever I enter in these three fields, I can't get past this error.
Help, please. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Or is this (another) bug in the HMRC on-line system?

 

[Mitchells Bristol]

Hello there

If you are accounting for a reduction in the value of stock due to obsolescence, then I think you are using the wrong box anyway. This would be reflected through your cost of sales, and not as an administrative cost - the box you have used is for the disposal of fixed assets and stock is not a fixed asset.

Hope this helps.

 

[pamw1001]

Many thanks for that quick reply.
Yes, that makes sense, however, I still get the error, even with £0.00 in both the CP51 and CP57 boxes.
I've tried going back and re-saving each page in turn, but that doesn't make any difference.
I don't really need to use their computations, it's a very simple return except for that one item (wish I'd done that write-down the year before!), but I don't know what they need as a 'Computation' document,or how to get it into XBRL.

 

[pamw1001]

Just to clarify what I did, and in case anyone else is having the same difficulties.
After you reminded me that I'd put the stock write-down in the wrong place, I made the following corrections:
a) Included the write-down value in Cost Of Sales
b) Reset the 'Loss on disposals' figure to £0.00 (box CP33).
This gave me the correct profit and the correct operating expenses.

With £0.00 in both the CP51 (Net loss on disposal of fixed assets) and CP57 (Net profit on disposal of fixed assets) I still get the "You cannot have both a net loss and a net profit on sale of fixed assets" error message on both boxes.
I logged out, logged in again and reloaded the CT600 form to see if it would refresh. The error message is still there, although it now appears only on the 'Net loss' field.
I'll try the technical support line tomorrow morning.
Thanks again for the correction.

 

[Don.]

Hi Pam,

Could you post their response?
I'm having the same problem.
As you mentioned even opening and closing doesnt sort the problem out. Like you, I only get the error on reopening, however when I click into the CP57 the second error appears again.

Thanks.

 

[pamw1001]

Thanks Don, it's nice to know I'm not alone, and the fact that you have the same problem suggests that it might be a known issue.
Pamela

 

[Don.]

Clearing both those fields so that they are empty seems to sort the problem out.

 

[pamw1001]

Well waddya know, so it does.
Now that's definitely a bug, it shouldn't allow blank entries in any field, never mind actually needing a blank entry.
Bug status just went down from 'Blocking' to 'Minor', though.
Thanks very much.
Pamela

 

[HMRCisCrap]

The work around does work. Delete the pre-populated zero and leave a blank box for CP51 & CP57. If you have an entry in either CP51 or CP57 delete the entry in the other box and leave it completely blank.

I encountered this a year ago. I took screen prints of the pages and error messages and sent them by email and Royal Mail to HMRC. Never got a reply. Bug still there. No help. No pop-ups. Nothing. Useless "help" facility. Huge delays on the telephone help desk. All designed to make you go mad and end up paying fines for late filing. Deliberate?

Let's face it, the government treats us like dirt and it is getting worse.

My wife used to do our payroll manually; has done the work for years. Forced to go on line this year she ended up in tears and now we pay a firm to do the payroll for us.

I hate HMRC. I hate the government.

 

[pamw1001]

It was like that last year as well?? I gave up last year before I got that far.
I found the same issue with a few more fields on a subsequent screen.
Software testing's what I do for a living, but as a user, it stopped me dead because it never occurred to me that anyone would leave such an obvious fault in an accounting application.
Makes them look like a bunch of amateurs.

 

[HMRCisCrap]

The things that are truly disgraceful are that the standard of software they use for their public interfaces is so poor by comparison with what the private sector uses, and even when users tell them about problems they don't fix them. No private enterprise would survive very long if their software was as poor as the government's. And they are thoroughly nasty when their systems trip someone up. Last year two of my companies were issued with fixed penalty fines by HMRC followed by horrid threatening letters from their collections people. It turned out that both penalty notices were issued automatically by faulty software; neither was upheld; both were withdrawn. Did I get an apology? Of course not. Did I get compensation for the significant amount of time these penalty notices took from me? Of course not. These imbeciles are out to get us and trip us up at every stage and when they get things wrong they get away with it.

I hate HMRC.