WRITTEN ON May 28th, 2005 BY Richard S AND STORED IN Uncategorized

Bought shiny new PC: Completed two online government transactions in a single day: Filed my Corporation Tax Return and submitted the Annual Return to Companies House.

Having literally turned my back on my trusty, six year old Thinkpad; I have to admit that a fairly cheap modern desktop PC works better (at least once it’s debugged):

CPU: 10 times more MHz
Bits: Twice as wide
RAM: 8 times more
Hard Drive: 20 times larger, RPM almost double
Price: Tenth of the 1998 price of my Thinkpad
But Mains Consumption and “Global Warming” 5 to 10 times higher!
Portability: Zero; Bloated OS; Information Accuracy: No better!

Note: In practice, these online services really require a Broadband connection.

Corporation Tax Return:
The Inland Revenue’s online “help” facility was broken, but this fast PC actually allowed me to keep the IR’s large PDF guide open while filling in the online form.

This was my second year. I actually found my login details. The web site worked reliably without crashing. Navigation between pages was rather poor.

Accounts have to be uploaded as PDF files.

WIBBI:
1. This online process should be aimed at the great mass of ordinary owners/administrators of small businesses rather than at specialist tax accountants.
2. Could the IR please write in normal English rather than accountancy code?
3. Could the Chancellor please simplify the tax system and make it mirror normal business reality?

As well as all the other complexities, company tax differentiates between “trading” and “non-trading” income: Why?

This sounds like the old Marxist difference between “earned” and “un-earned” income which still blights and complicates our personal taxation.

To ordinary “hard working” mortals, there are only two types of income: Legal and illegal. Any other distinctions are unnecessary complications.

Companies House Annual Return:
Obtaining the login codes was lengthy and difficult, but the actual filing process worked fairly smoothly. The web screens were simple but full of “threats.” Some language was unclear and confusing.

I corrected some addresses but the system seemed to ignore my corrections. It crashed while I was completing the “feedback” form, possibly losing some details. The automatic email acknowledgements arrived promtly. The service promises to email a copy of the updates within a week.

Online payment by credit card worked fairly well but on the authorisation page, “print page” printed the wrong page. The email acknowledgement was OK.

WIBBI:
1. Why does everything from Companies House carry heavy-handed threats such as “Being Late is a Criminal Offence”?
2. Why not abolish Companies House? It is not needed for large plc.s, and is irrelevant for the great mass of small companies.
3. Who really has a genuine need to view my company’s out of date accounts or to find the private addresses of the Directors?

We now hear that Companies House has been accepting fraudulent information from criminals, helping them to defraud their victims’ companies. Why not close this loophole by simply abolishing the Register?