Annual Statutory Accounts and Corporation Tax Services

Statutory Accounts Services and Compliance for Limited Companies

Statutory Accounts Services meet the annual compliance requirements associated with operating your business through a limited company, and therefore the involvement of an accountant to manage the relationships with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) and the Revenue Commissioners, tend not to be viewed by many business owners as anything other than a ‘compulsory purchase’ and of little or no value.

In practice, the aim of our Statutory Accounts Services is to ensure that the various compliance deadlines are met with the minimum of impact or disruption to normal business activities during the financial year, but obviously it is only where compliance issues are not dealt with on time, that the importance of getting it right becomes much more apparent !

Overall we believe that the broader benefits of having an accountant managing your annual compliance is money well spent and good business sense, as follows:

• we have been trained over a number of years to be able to manage the various technical issues around VAT, payroll, company law as well as bookkeeping
• although you may be a great entrepreneur, you are unlikely to be great at the administrative tasks involved (i.e. either be efficient at it or even really enjoy it !)
• it is unlikely that while enduring the unique pressures involved with a ‘start up’ business, your time is best spent on admin, compliance and bookkeeping, rather than on sales/marketing/customer service etc.
• dealing with correspondence from the Revenue can be a disruption to the business, and can also become expensive with late filing penalties, surcharges and interest charges
• managing business compliance issues efficiently, provides a basic financial platform for the business

Corporation tax Returns

Why

• Each company director is legally and personally responsible for ensuring that annual statutory financial statements (or accounts) are prepared, and at a minimum an abbreviated set of these accounts are submitted to CRO within the specified deadlines
• Statutory accounts must be prepared according to prevailing accountancy standards
• The amount of corporation tax payable on company profits each financial year is determined by the results reflected in the annual statutory accounts
• Ensure that the business has sufficient reserves in order to be able to issue dividends to shareholder(s)
• Credit terms and facilities provided by suppliers are generally only offered following a review of the accounts reflected on the public record

Benefits

• An annual review of the financial statements of the business (at a minimum) provides an opportunity for the business owner to review the business activity for the year, and to understand what the main drivers of the business were
• We also use this as an additional opportunity to meet with each client and discuss the results in detail, identify key issues and agree actions around potential cost savings, process improvements etc.
• Where a business exit is planned for the medium or long term, then statutory accounts will form a core part of the information required as part of the overall process

Statutory Accounts Services for Corporation Tax Return

Why

• Every limited company is required to notify the Revenue once it becomes chargeable to corporation tax i.e. once it commences to trade
• Current tax legislation also requires limited companies to submit a corporation tax return and accounts to the Revenue annually, with all returns now required to be completed and submitted online within specified deadlines
• Following submission of the corporation tax return to Revenue, the appropriate payment needs to be made with accurate reference(s) to ensure that it is received and allocated on time

Benefits

• We will maintain detailed analyses and other records to ensure that we have the appropriate supporting information necessary to deal simply and easily with any subsequent queries from Revenue
• Where there are substantial addbacks in your results i.e. non deductible expenditure, we will use the year-end meeting as an opportunity to suggest changes to business activities to reduce the non-deductibles for the next year
• Following the submission of the corporation tax return we will provide the Revenue payment details and relevant reference to be added to the payment, plus provide a reminder service 4 – 6 weeks ahead of the final deadline
• We will assist with highlighting any appropriate tax planning opportunities

Contact us to find out more about our Statutory Accounts Services.