Watson Buckle Blog

Filing tax returns online to be made compulsory

Over the next few years, the government will be changing the way business owners have to manage and pay some taxes, and making it compulsory to file certain returns and forms online.

The taxes that are moving to compulsory online filing are:

end-of-year and in-year PAYE (Pay As You Earn) forms for employers
VAT
Corporation Tax

It is already possible to manage all of the above taxes online and many businesses do, but a timetable has now been put in place for filing online to become compulsory – so it makes sense to start getting used to the systems now.

For businesses with 50 or more employees, it is already mandatory to deliver certain information online. Smaller firms will have to file their end-of-year forms online by April 2010 at the latest, and filing in-year forms will become compulsory from April 2011.

VAT management will be switching to online filing and electronic payment only from April 2010, for companies registered on or after that date, as well as any company with a turnover of £100,000 or above.

Company Tax Returns and supporting documents need to be supplied in Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) from 31 March 2011, relating to periods ending on 1 April 2010 or later. Individual companies are responsible for ensuring their software systems can cope with this, and tax returns not in the correct format will be treated as not having been delivered.

Watson Buckle is used to working with the latest technology and is already working to help clients adjust to the new systems. For more advice about filing and paying tax online, please contact us.

John Kinsella
Watson Buckle
www.watsonbuckle.co.uk