Business Tax Attorneys – Does Your Company Need To Prepare Group Accounts?
Does Your Company Need To Prepare Group Accounts?
Due to changes in the 2006 Companies Act, there have been some amends to the requirements of Groups preparing company accounts for their subsidiary companies. Following is a brief breakdown of the changes and what they could mean for your company.
Following changes to company law, medium sized groups will now be required to prepare group accounts to be filed at Companies House – Small and medium sized groups were exempt from this previously.
If your company is the parent company of a mid sized group of companies, then you must prepare accounts that combine both your own financial performance and position AND the subsidiary companies.
Such accounts are known as “group accounts”.
Group accounts can be fairly complex depending on the size of the parent group and the number of companies within it.
How do I know if my company is affected?
The 2006 Companies Act had a phased implementation – with the exemption for mid sized group accounts being removed for accounting periods beginning on or after 6 April 2008.
This means that companies with a year end of 30 April 2009 were the first to be affected.
However, if your company has an unusual year end (or prepares accounts for less than one year) your company may have been affected slightly sooner.
For a group of companies to be qualified as medium sized (not small) two of the following three thresholds need to be exceeded for two consecutive years:-
Turnover – £6.5m net (£7.8m gross)
Gross Assets – £3.26m net (£3.9m gross)
Employees – 50
How do I know if my company is part of a group?
A group of companies is when one company has a controlling interest in one or more other companies – ordinarily the “parent” company will own more than 50% of the ordinary share capital of the “subsidiary” company.
Are there any exemptions?
Yes. Small groups of companies will remain exempt as they always have been from filing group accounts with companies house.
Parent companies which are also a subsidiary company are likely to be exempt. Provided that they form part of a larger group of companies for which group accounts are prepared.
Parent companies whose subsidiary interests can be considered immaterial are also exempt.
If you have any questions about the changes to preparing group accounts and how they will effect your company, contact your chartered accountants firm.
By: Lily Foreman
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
Lily Foreman is a professional copywriter working in the field of business finance and accountancy. She is currently working with a forensic accounting firm creating articles to advise business owners about tax, VAT and accountancy related issues including specialist solutions such as medical accounting
On March 23, 2010 President Obama signed into law one of the largest and most controversial pieces of legislation called the Patient Affordable Care Act (aka Health Care Reform Bill). This new legislation is so complex that it will take nearly eight years to fully implement. The first stage takes effect in 2010 with four distinct provisions. This article will address one of those provisions, The Small Business Tax Credit.
Beginning January 1, 2010, small businesses who contribute 50% or more toward their employees health
insurance premiums for are eligible for a non-refundable small business income tax credit. This provision creates two classes of employers:
1. Eligible small employers and
2. Large employers.
Eligible small employers are defined as employers with 25 or fewer full-time employees with average annual wages of $50,000 or less. Everyone else exceeding these thresholds is, by default, a large employer and not eligible for the credit.
Full-Time Employees:
To determine the number of eligible full-time employees (FTE), an employer must divide total hours worked by all employees by 2,080. Total hours worked by employees cannot include hours worked by any employee that exceeds 2,080 hours for the year. Thus, overtime is excluded from the calculation of total hours. 5% owners and 2% S Corporation shareholders are not considered employees for purposes of the full-time employee calculation.
Average Annual Wages:
To determine the average annual wage base, an employer must divide total wages paid to employees during the year by the total number of full-time employees (from previous calculation). 5% owners and 2% S Corporation shareholders are not considered employees for purposes of the average annual wage base calculation.
Calculation of the Non-Refundable Income Tax Credit:
A maximum non-refundable income tax credit of 35% will be available only to employers with 10 or fewer full-time employees and average annual wages of $25,000 or less. This credit is applied to the employer’s share of health insurance premiums and this dollar amount is the credit that is applied against business income tax (or passed through to partners or S Corporation shareholders). The amount of the credit utilized to reduce income tax reduces the employer’s health insurance deduction for the year.
These are the two baselines for the credit:
10 full-time employees and
$25,000 in average annual wages.
As the number of FTEs rise above 10 and/or the average annual wage base rises above $25,000, the credit quickly disappears. This is known as a phase-out, and because of the complexity of the formula to determine an employer’s eligible credit, a table was created to make it easier to compute the eligible credit. For example, if an employer has 11 FTEs with an average annual wage base of $15,000, the credit is 33%. For each additional FTE above 10, the credit is reduced by 2%. If an employer has 10 FTEs with an average annual base exceeding $25,000, but not exceeding $30,000, the credit is 28%. The credit is reduced by 7% as the average annual wage base exceeds the $25,000, $30,000, $35,000, $40,000 and $45,000 average annual wage base table amount. If you use the tables, the credit is 0% once the total number of full-time employees exceed 24.9 or once the average annual wage exceeds $45,999.
Other Rules:
1. Aggregation rules apply, which means affiliated companies must be aggregated in determining eligibility, the number of full-time employees and average annual wage base.
2. The credit may be applied against regular income tax and alternative minimum tax.
3. If an eligible small business employer qualifies for the credit but cannot use the credit in the current year, they may carry the credit back one year to use against the prior year’s income tax.
There is also a credit for non-profit organizations of 25%. This credit, unlike the 35% business credit, may be used to reduce the Medicare portion of payroll taxes (Form 941 will have a line item for this credit).
Tom is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Financial Planner, CLTC (Certified Long-Term Care) and President of Cerefice & Company, the largest CPA firm in Rahway, New Jersey. Tom works with clients helping them manage their money, retirement planning, college savings, life insurance needs, IRAs and qualified plan rollovers with an eye towards maximizing tax benefits and minimizing taxes. Tom is founder of the Rich Habits Institute and author of “Rich Habits”.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_Corley
Irs Tax Debt Settlement Help – Get Your Irs Tax Questions Answered
You all probably know there are a lot of firms nowadays that claim to be able to provide people with IRS tax debt settlement help. Among these we may find attorney firms specializing in tax law and debt counseling agencies that have some experience in dealing with the Internal Revenue Service. The large number of the entities to assist you with IRS tax debt settlement help is so great that selecting the one you need can be a difficult task. I’d like to share a few tips to help you make the right choice, the tips that helped one of my friends.
First, try to think locally rather than globally. Ideally, you surely want to get IRS tax debt settlement help from an agency that you can sit down with and talk the matter over face to face. The reasons for that are quite clear:
1. You yourself can ensure the firm has been in this business for quite some time, and is stable;
2. Direct interaction with the firm representatives can help you build a rapport between you and your debt counselor, which may come out to be very useful in the end.
Always check for resources in your local area before looking for other opportunities that are based elsewhere.
If there are very few local resources in your area, or you have reason to question the quality of those services, you might want to turn your attention to other possibilities. You can often check with state associations and find reputable agencies that can help you obtain the most reliable IRS tax debt settlement help. Even though the company may not be located in your area, it may still be possible to schedule an appointment with their representatives. Why not traveling to their place of business and have a couple of face to face meetings that may help you out?
There certainly is always a possibility that you will be unable to find a resource for IRS tax debt settlement help. In such a case the most logical way out is to turn to the Internet. There are a number of agencies that claim to be very effective in working with the IRS. Most of them really do have some experience with IRS, but some may turn out to be “scams”. That is why it is a good idea not take their claims at face value and do some research, like “googling” the firm’s name and checking their online reputation. This way you can
1000
learn where the firm is located, what consumers say about the agency, and if they are registered with the Better Business Bureau.
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
You can find out more about IRS Tax Debt Settlement Help as well as much more information on everything to do with the IRS, tax attorneys and taxes at IRStaxInformationHelp.weebly.com
Mail this post
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
No comments yet