Tax & Accounting News

Joint Approach For Online Filing

18/09/2009

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Companies House have adopted a common approach to the online filing of company tax returns, following a recommendation of the 2006 Carter review into tax authorities’ online services.

The review also proposed that businesses and organisations that need to file a company tax return online should do so using Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), a format that makes reporting of financial information easier and is intended to reduce the administrative burden for companies.

Companies House has now said it will be in a position to accept unaudited full accounts in Inline XBRL (iXBRL) format by the summer of 2010, and will continue to develop its iXBRL capacity for all the main types of accounts it receives.

HMRC’s new iXBRL service for company tax returns should be available from November 2009, while commercial software that is iXBRL-enabled is due to come on stream in the spring of 2010.

All company returns will need to be submitted online in iXBRL format as from April 2011 for accounting periods ending after 31 March 2010. This includes the actual return form, company accounts and tax calculations.

Companies House chief executive Gareth Jones said: “This early statement of our intentions will reassure businesses that both HMRC and Companies House are working closely together to align our services to make the filing of accounts as easy as possible for UK companies.”

For more information or advice on online filing, please contact us.