Limited companies

The registered office is the official address to which all communications and notices may be addressed. The company must at all times have a registered office and this must be a physical location and not a PO Box address. The country of the location o...

The general duties required of a director are set out in seven sections of the Companies Act.

An auditor of a private company must be appointed for each financial year of the company, unless the directors resolve otherwise on the grounds that audited accounts are unlikely to be required.

The Companies Act requires that all companies must keep a register of members

Where a service contract is, or maybe, longer than two years.

This is a complicated area of the Act and we recommend that advice be sought with regard to long term service contracts.

Subject to certain exemptions, a company that meets the small company criteria in respect of a financial year is exempt from the requirement to have an audit of accounts for that year.

The Companies Act prescribes that every company must keep adequate accounting records

The requirements of the Companies Act regarding the preparation of group accounts are based on the company's size.

The Companies Act requires that a company may not take part in an arrangement under which another person enters into a transaction that, if it had been entered into by the company, would have required approval under sections 197, 198, 200 or 201, and that person, in pursuance of the...

If two or more companies are controlled by the same person or by 'connected persons' (such as husband and wife, or father and daughter), the amounts above are divided by the total number of companies.

In many small companies, the owners are also the directors, and this gives considerable scope for deciding how profits should be extracted from the company.

Expenditure incurred before the company year end might reduce the current year's tax liability instead of next year's. Bringing forward expenditure by even a few weeks on, for example, building repairs, advertising, sales and marketing campaigns, and any other item deductible from profits can accelerate the tax relief by twelve months.

Benefits in kind are assessed on all directors and employees whose salary and benefits combined are £8,500 or more. Remuneration by way of benefits is often attractive to employees, especially if they are paying the higher rate of income tax, because the benefit may either be tax free or subject to less tax.

The tax system has many fines and penalties for those that do not file or pay on time. Make sure you do not become liable to any of these penalties.

Capital allowances for the construction costs of industrial buildings or structures fall under several different headings, but collectively they are known as industrial buildings allowances.

In order to attract a deduction in computing the profits of a trade or business any expenses must be incurred wholly and exclusively for the purpose of the trade. Capital expenditure is not an allowable expense (capital allowances are claimed on these costs), and certain other expenses are barred by statute.

There are over 100 forms prescribed by the Companies Act 2006. We list below these and include a link to all the forms which can be downloaded direct from Companies House.

If time is an important factor, you can consider buying a ready-made company. The procedure will depend on the company formation agents', including online agents, requirements.

It is essential that you keep your company's statutory records up-to-date. Do not underestimate the importance of these records - they are definitive proof of the company's legal existence and its members.

Ideas on how you can reduce the time we take to prepare your year-end accounts.

As accountants and business advisers we get to know our clients very well. From our position, it is all too clear to us that many clients are too focused on 'today' to give serious thought to the future.