February 2009

Pregnant women are being urged to apply for the new Health in Pregnancy grant of £190.

In order to qualify the baby must be due on or after 6 April 2009.

The one-off payment is intended to help pregnant women ‘stay fit and healthy in the run up to the birth, and help meet some of the costs as the big day approaches’.

Claim forms are issued by midwives or other health professionals from week 25 of pregnancy and there is a time limit of 31 days in which to claim the grant.

Internet link: Health in pregnancy

February 2009

If you run your own company you will no doubt be aware that company law requires all companies to file a copy of their annual accounts at Companies House by their ‘due date’.  Penalties become payable if these accounts are filed late.

With effect from 1 February 2009 higher late filing penalties will be imposed on those companies that file their accounts late.

Due date
You may recall that under normal circumstances a company must file a copy of its accounts at Companies House within ten months of its year end.

For accounting periods that begin on or after 6 April 2008 (that is April 2009 year ends and onwards for most), a new Companies Act has reduced this period to within nine months of the year end.

Higher penalties
The higher late filing penalties compared with those which previously applied are as follows:

For accounts prepared under the new Companies Act, the penalties will also be doubled for late filing in two successive years.

Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs)
The shorter filing deadline and higher penalties also apply to LLPs.  However, the doubling of penalties for the late filing of accounts in two successive years will only apply for two successive late filings of accounts for financial years that begin on or after 1 October 2008.

Internet link: Companies House late filing penalties

February 2008

HMRC have apologised for a problem that they have identified with the self assessment tax return. The problem apparently only relates to tax returns submitted prior to 31 October 2007 where the taxpayer asked for any unpaid tax to be collected directly rather than by a restriction in their tax codes for 2008/09. It is only possible to collect underpayments via a tax code restriction where you are an employee or company director, with sufficient pay to enable any underpayment up to £2,000 to be collected.

If you have received a statement advising you that your unpaid tax will be collected through your PAYE tax code and you would rather pay directly please let us know as soon as possible so we can sort this out.

If alternatively you are happy to have the underpayment collected through your tax code, please let us have a copy of your coding notice for checking when received.

Internet Link: HMRC working together