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If you're self-employed or a sole trader, legally you must keep records of your income (and any capital gains) for at least five years and ten months after the end of the tax year.
Learn how to understand your accounts here.
If you're being pursued by a creditor for an old debt, you may be able to ignore it on the ground that it has time-lapsed. This is six years, except in Scotland where it's five, but this only applies if no legal action has been taken against you on the debt, and you have not acknowledged it during the time. If you do now acknowledge it as a result of the creditor contacting you, you will reactivate the debt, so take advice before doing anything.
All chartered accountants are members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, who will assess your complaint to decide whether conciliation is appropriate or alternatively, carry out an investigation.
Other accountants may be members of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, or the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants. Book-keepers may belong to the Institute of Chartered Secretaries. All of these bodies will investigate and may take disciplinary action against the accountant if your complaint is upheld.
Need to find an accountant? Get a free initial meeting with TaxAssist Accountants.
Corporation Tax is accounted for in 12-month periods, unless the accounting period from its commencement to the first accounting date, or the last period of operation, is less than 12 months. (You may already be thinking that it's time to consult a professional accountant and, in our view, if you have a limited company and you are dealing with Corporation Tax you should certainly seek professional advice.)
Every company has to fill in an annual Corporation Tax Return (Form CT600) and this Return has to be submitted by the company secretary or the directors within 12 months of the end of the accounting period. However, tax has to be paid, assuming we are dealing with a small company, nine months after the end of the accounting period. Big companies have to pay Corporation Tax at more frequent intervals.
In principle, you are liable to Capital Gains Tax in respect of any assets used in your business. However, if further business assets are purchased within one year before or three years after the sale, you can claim 'rollover relief' as a result of which the gain on the disposal is deducted from the cost of the new business assets acquired. Therefore, no tax is paid until the new business assets are sold, unless they too are replaced. For these assets to qualify they must either be land and buildings, fixed plant and machinery, milk and potato quota or other agricultural quotas. Please note that motor vehicles or any vehicle on wheels don't qualify.
A firm or business partnership, unlike a company, is not a legal entity separate from its members. An individual business partner will therefore be personally liable:
- for his own wrongful acts; and
- for the wrongful acts of his co-partners committed in the normal course of the firm's business; and
- for the wrongful acts of the employees of the partnership committed while acting in the course of their employment.
Where the partners are defendants under (1) or (2) above they are sued in the name of the firm (i.e. the claimants are expressed to be ''Thompson, Thompson and Smythe', a firm'). Only those business partners who were business partners at the time of the act complained of will be held liable.
No, but you still need to apply the principles of the Data Protection Act. See the Information Commissioner's website for more information.
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