HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs) is the department of the UK Government responsible for the collection of taxes.
If you have to prepare accounts under the Companies Act, you must file your accounts and computations online in iXBRL format.
A Company Tax Return comprises:
.... together with any other attachments (in PDF format) to support your return.
Therefore if you have to prepare accounts under the Companies Act, you must file these online in iXBRL format.
There are 2 options for filing your accounts and company tax return online with HMRC:
Before delivery to you, the iXBRL file is fully validated with HMRC, so that no issues during filing are encountered.
On receipt from us, you then attach the iXBRL format file for your accounts or computations within the filing software – these iXBRL files are supplied by our Tagging Service.
The iXBRL file supplied by us has a .html extension e.g. Acme_Enterprise_plc_UK_acct_20211231_01a.html – this iXBRL file is attached to the return.
The fact that the iXBRL file has an .html extension means that you can click on the file and see a visual representation of the financial statement within a browser.
The file appears to be just an ordinary HTML file, which can be a cause of confusion. However, rest assured that the iXBRL code itself is contained within the file (although the iXBRL code is not visible when simply viewed within a browser).
The Tagging Report supplied as a PDF file to you is for your benefit and reference only, so do not upload/supply this to HMRC.
Yes it will. All deliverables are fully checked and validation is performed before delivery to the customer – for UK customers your file is specifically tested with the HMRC validation service, so that you do not face any issues during filing.
You can only include one iXBRL accounts file and one computation file as part of your online Company Tax Return. Any additional supporting documents forming part of the online return that you wish to send to HMRC must be attached as PDF files.
The validated iXBRL file is provided by us to you before submission, but only the registered taxpayer or the taxpayer's authorised agent can actually file the accounts.
There are three components to the tax return:
For assistance with filing your company tax return online, see guidance below or contact us direct:
HMRC's Corporation Tax online service does not support the attaching/uploading of iXBRL files for either company accounts and/or computations. Instead one needs to use commercial filing software to achieve this:
See HMRC information resources.
The period that a company prepares accounts for (period of account) can be longer than 12 months.
However, the Corporation Tax accounting period (AP) cannot exceed 12 months.
Where the period of account does exceed 12 months, it must be split into more than one AP, with a separate set of tax computations and form CT600 for each.
The accounts should be attached for the first AP they cover, then none attached for the other APs covered.
The trading profits need to be apportioned between the APs. This may be done by time-apportionment, which is the most common method. However, a different method should be used if better information is reasonably available. Chargeable gains fall into the AP in which they arise instead of being time-apportioned.
If the company has prepared accounts for a period that is more than 12 months but less than 18 months, it must deliver a tax return within 12 months from the end of that period. If the period of account is more than 18 months, a tax return must be delivered within 30 months from the start of the period.
More information on accounting periods, go to: Accounting periods for Corporation Tax
Further information relating to the filing of company accounts and computations is detailed in our FAQs Overview - HMRC section
