We all know that the Government has absolute discretion to waive penalties for late filing of tax documentation, including Corporation Tax returns (where there is a reasonable excuse!).
It has been mentioned that a reasonable excuse is the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on Companys’ ability to complete their year-end and compute their Corporation Tax within normal filing deadlines.
Remember, a Corporation Tax return is not complete unless it is filed with a signed set of Company accounts. In many cases, especially where Companies are above audit thresholds, this requires auditors to audit financials before sign off. Auditors have a backlog of audits to carry out and this has impacted businesses ability to get the accounts signed off for deadline date.
The government has extended the timeframe in which Companies have to file their company accounts to that shown below -
- PLCs – Filing deadline extended from 6 t 9 months
- Private Company (Ltd) – Filing deadline extended from 9 to 12 months
- LLPs – Filing deadline extended from 9 to 12 months
- Overseas companies who are required to prepare and disclose accounts under parent law – Filing deadline extended from 3 to 6 months
So hang on I hear you saying….If the Government have extended the deadline for Company accounts, whats going on with Corporation Tax?
Here’s the boring but important bit…This guidance is in line with existing practice which is set out in HMRC’s Company Taxation Manual at COM130070. This states that when Companies House grants a company further time to deliver its accounts, the company may also be able to deliver its Corporation Tax return later than the filing date without incurring a penalty.
Phew!
For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/corporation-tax or contact us directly.
