Companies House have announced that they will not proceed with legislation to mandate electronic services by March 2013 as they had previously intended. They say this is “because of the government’s absolute determination not to add new regulations that affect small businesses”. That moratorium ends in 2014 so companies can continue to file accounts in the traditional way until at least then.
Announced in the March Budget, the government's decision exempts start-ups and businesses with less than 10 staff from new regulation for three years from 1 April 2011. The moratorium was of course too late to prevent HMRC mandating the use of iXBRL for filing corporation returns and accounts from 1 April 2011 and the regulation is already costing small businesses in increased fees and/or a lot of hassle.
The move to electronic filing seems a logical move in the 21st century and in time I’m sure that we’ll all be filing iXBRL accounts at both Companies House and HMRC without too much worry. However some clients are understandably reluctant to invest in new accounts preparation software until Companies House bring in mandatory electronic filing. We have transferred most of our clients’ accounts onto our CaseWare accounts preparation software that makes the iXBRL tagging process so much easier. Some clients are continuing to prepare accounts in Word and we are converting them into iXBRL and tagging the information for HMRC’s benefit. Both services result in increased fees for clients, which while good for our business, is not good for clients as they get little or no benefit from it.
I can’t see that HMRC are going to remove their iXBRL requirement and indeed it will get worse in 2013 when they mandate the full tagging lists. Therefore the delay by Companies House may be in compliance with the government’s announcement but in reality it will be of no material benefit to small businesses.
If you’re interested in our iXBRL services then please follow this link to our iXBRL page.
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