The Lemon Fool

I filed my company accounts and corporation tax return in respect of the year ended 31/03/20 on 04/05/20 and received an automated acknowledgement. I keep checking my online corporation tax account to see if the statement has been updated to reflect the tax due which I calculated in the return and it does not show anything.

I presume that HMRC are more overworked than usual with the various covid arrangements. I wondered if others had a similar or different experience in relation to the updating of their corporation tax account? Is there any downside to just paying what I calculated now? (NB. This is only a small amount and is not due until 01/01/21 but I just want to get the admin over and done with.)

Did you file online? In my experience it is odd that it's not showing. Are you looking at the correct year when you log in? Sorry, I can't really help much from this vantage. How did you file exactly? Is the system even showing receipt of the CT600, or just nothing?

bluedonkey wrote:Did you file online? In my experience it is odd that it's not showing. Are you looking at the correct year when you log in? Sorry, I can't really help much from this vantage. How did you file exactly? Is the system even showing receipt of the CT600, or just nothing?

Yes I did file online. When I log into the 'File your company accounts and tax return' section it does show the following:

HMRC
Company Tax Return 1 Apr 2019 - 31 Mar 2020 4 May 2020 Submission complete

However in the 'Accounting period overview' section it is all blank as follows:

Accounting period ending 31 Mar 2020
If you wish to print this information for your records, please use the print facility on your browser.

Please note: To view a breakdown of an amount, follow the link in the description column.

When making a payment for this accounting period please quote the payment reference number xxxxxxxxxxx

How to pay
Description Help about: Overview description - opens in a new window Amount (£) Help about: Amount (£) - opens in a new window
Tax 0.00
Interest 0.00
Penalties 0.00
Sub total 0.00
Less paid 0.00
Repayments/Reallocations 0.00
Adjustments 0.00
Total 0.00

NB. All I have changed in the above is the payment reference number as I assume that is unique to my tax account.

Rgds.

I think you need to navigate to a HMRC screen that says "Business Tax Summary" and then go to "Corporation Tax" within that.

Is it possible that your return actually shows a nil liability? Have you checked back to what you filed?

bluedonkey wrote:I think you need to navigate to a HMRC screen that says "Business Tax Summary" and then go to "Corporation Tax" within that.

Is it possible that your return actually shows a nil liability? Have you checked back to what you filed?

Thanks again for responding.

I did indeed sign in initially via those two screens you mention before I got to the ones I posted above.

The return I filed shows a small (c£30) liability for the year and this is what I would expect the accounting period review for the year to 31 Mar 2020 to show. I presume these things are automated. Perhaps because of the crisis they have not reviewed and approved it yet although the receipt email I received after filing in May states the checks normally take 2 days and that thereafter you can check the progress for the return accounting period in the Corporation Tax section of the company's online tax account, which I presume is where I am looking.

If there was a problem with the filing I would have expected HMRC to have alerted me by now. Maybe I have nothing to lose by just paying it and letting them catch up in due course. I want the tax position agreed before I declare and pay a dividend out of retained earnings.

I have filed more of these returns than I care to remember. I cannot recall what you describe happening to even one of them. The HMRC do not actively check what you have submitted, it is an automated process. Sorry, unable to help further.

bluedonkey wrote:I have filed more of these returns than I care to remember. I cannot recall what you describe happening to even one of them. The HMRC do not actively check what you have submitted, it is an automated process. Sorry, unable to help further.

Thanks for your input anyway.