It had been proposed that there will be a new statutory exemption for trivial benefits up to a limit of £50 from from 6 April 2015, this measure is not included in the first Finance Bill of 2015, it has been deferred until after the election.
The £50 tax exemption would have been on items such as birthday and Christmas gifts. The legislation would have also introduced an annual cap of £300 in some circumstances.
So we are stuck with the old rules for now
An employer may provide employees with a seasonal gift, such as a turkey, an ordinary bottle of wine or a box of chocolates at Christmas. All of these gifts can be treated as trivial benefits. . For an employer with a large number of employees the total cost of providing a gift to each employee may be considerable, but where the gift to each employee is a trivial benefit, this principle applies regardless of the total cost to the employer and the number of employees concerned. If a benefit is trivial it should not be included in a PSA (EIM21861).
There are 3 sizes of companies to consider when preparing your accounts; small, medium or large. There are thresholds for turnover, balance sheet total (meaning the total of the fixed and current assets) and the average number of employees, which determine whether your company is small or medium-sized. Any companies that do not meet the criteria for small or medium are large companies and will have to prepare and submit full accounts.
A small company can prepare and submit accounts according to special provisions in the Companies Act 2006 and the relevant regulations. This means that they can choose to disclose less information than medium-sized and large companies.
The Thresholds are:
Test
Small Company
Small Group
Medium Company
Audit Exempt
Sales must be below
£6.5 million
£6.5m net or £7.8m gross
£25.9 million
£6.5 million
Balance Sheet Total
£3.26 million
£3.26m net or £3.9m gross
£12.9 million
£3.26 million
Average no. of employees
50
50
250
50
A small company must meet at least two of the conditions above.
Generally, small company accounts prepared for members include:
a profit and loss account
a full balance sheet, signed by a director on behalf of the board and the printed name of that director
notes to the accounts
group accounts (if a small parent company chooses to prepare them)
And they should be accompanied by:
a directors’ report that shows the signature of a secretary or director and their printed name
an auditors report that includes the printed name of the registered auditor (unless the company qualifies for exemption from audit and takes advantage of that exemption)
For financial years ending on or after 1 October 2012 a small company only needs to qualify as small to be exempt from Audit.
Even if a small company meets these criteria, it must still have its accounts audited if a member or members holding at least 10% of the nominal value of issued share capital or holding 10% of any class of shares demands it; or – in the case of a company limited by guarantee – 10% of its members in number.
A medium company must meet at least two of the conditions above for medium companies.
Medium-sized accounts must include:
a profit and loss account
a balance sheet, showing the printed name and signature of a director
notes to the accounts
group accounts (if appropriate)
And should be accompanied by:
a directors’ report including a business review showing the printed name of the approving secretary or director
an auditor’s report that includes the name of the registered auditor unless the company is exempt from audit
Medium-sized companies may omit certain information from the business review in their directors’ report (that is, analysis using key performance indicators so far as they relate to non-financial information). Also a medium-sized company which is part of an ineligible group can still take advantage of the exemption from disclosing non-financial key performance indicators in the business review.
Medium-sized companies preparing Companies Act accounts may omit disclosure with respect to compliance with accounting standards and related party transactions from the accounts they send to their members.
Abbreviated accounts of a medium-sized company must include:
the abbreviated profit and loss account (this must be full if preparing IAS accounts)
the full balance sheet showing the printed name and signature of a director
a special auditor’s report showing the printed name of the registered auditor
the directors’ report showing the printed name of the approving secretary or director
notes to the accounts
What is a dormant company?
A company is dormant if it has had no ‘significant accounting transactions’ during the accounting period. A significant accounting transaction is one which the company should enter in its accounting records.
When determining whether a company is dormant you can disregard the following transactions:
payment for shares taken by subscribers to the memorandum of association
fees paid to the Registrar of Companies for a change of company name, the re-registration of a company and filing annual returns
payment of a civil penalty for late filing of accounts
How long do I normally have to file my accounts?
The time normally allowed for delivering accounts to Companies House is:
9 months from the accounting reference date for a private company
6 months from the accounting reference date for a public company
You can submit the following accounts online:
dormant company accounts
small full audit exempt accounts
small audit exempt abbreviated accounts
Failure to deliver accounts on time is a criminal offence.
