Trivia

Below is a guide to just some of the tasks that your Account Manager might undertake before your draft accounts can be prepared.

Enter all sales and purchase invoices and receipts onto relevant software (unless this is done by the client).

Ensure that payment has been received for all sales invoices. Check with the client if any payments to the client remain outstanding.

Ensure that all purchase invoices have been paid. Check with the client if any invoices appear to be unpaid.

Complete a bank reconciliation (if there is a business bank account).

Reconcile the VAT paid if VAT-registered, to ensure that the correct VAT has been paid.

Monitor sales to ensure that a client is registered for VAT if the VAT threshold is reached.

Reconcile the PAYE if PAYE-registered, to ensure that the correct PAYE has been paid.

Reconcile CIS if registered for CIS, to ensure that CIS payments are up to date and that the correct amount has been paid.

Check with client as to whether there are any expenses that we should expect to see in the draft accounts, but appear to be missing, e.g. mileage, phone and internet use.

Submit VAT if VAT – registered (unless client does this).

Submit CIS if CIS – registered (unless client does this).

Prepare CIS deduction statements for sub-contractors.

Add payroll journals to the appropriate software package used by or, on behalf of, the client.

Prepare management accounts to show client how the business is doing at a certain point in time, including calculating an accrual for how much Corporation Tax is due at that point in time. Prepare working papers at the end of the financial year, from which the draft accounts will be prepared.

Check allocation of any dividends and issue dividends where appropriate to cover an overdrawn Director’s Loan Account.

Answer any client queries as they arise.

Use the above information as a starting point in the preparation of the client’s personal tax return.

Please contact your Account Manager if you have questions regarding any aspect of the above information.

In 1582 Pope Gregory xiii grew tired of the inaccuracies in the existing ‘Julian’ calendar and ordered the calendar to be changed. The Julian calendar named after Julius Caesar had been in place since 45 BC.

Caesar’s calendar differed from the solar calendar by 11½ minutes.

This was not a big problem at the start, however, after 500 years this small inaccuracy had started to build up to 10 days off the solar calendar.  With this in mind, Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar.

The Gregorian calendar reduced the length of the calendar year from 365.25 days to 365.2425, a reduction of 10 minutes 48 seconds per year!

This and a few other tweaks ensured Pope Gregory’s calendar was a much more accurate time keeper. The Gregorian Calendar was then introduced in Italy, Spain, Portugal and what was then the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth.

The Gregorian Calendar was initially quite a slow burner in the British Empire, it wasn’t introduced until 1752.  By then the British calendar was 11 days off the rest of Europe, with this due to increase as time passed, the British knew it was time for a change.

On the old British Calendar the tax year began on March 25 (the old New Year’s Day).  In order to ensure against losing revenue it was decided by the British Treasury that the tax year, which started on March 25 1752, would be of the usual length (365 days) and therefore it would end on April 4, the following tax year beginning on April 5.

Time passed smoothly and most importantly accurately until 1800.  Unfortunately 1800 was not a leap year in the new Gregorian calendar but would have been in the old Julian system. Thus the treasury moved the start of the UK tax year from the April 5 to the April 6 and it has remained there ever since!

You’ll never get an email, text message or phone call from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) which:

• tells you about a tax rebate or penalty
• asks for your personal or payment information

Reporting suspicious emails, texts or phone calls

You can report something suspicious to HMRC’s phishing team, for example:

• a text message (forward it to 60599 – you’ll be charged at your network rate)
• an email
• details of a phone call asking for personal information or threatening a lawsuit

If you receive a suspicious phone call, you can help HMRC’s investigations by providing:

• your phone number
• the caller’s phone number
• the time and date of the call
• a brief description of the call
  
  

HMRC phishing team’s email address is phishing@hmrc.gov.uk.

Your email address and phone number will be shared with other organisations if that’s necessary to close down the scam.