F11 not filed in 2004

[Binky]

Hi
I wonder can someone advise me. My husband was a prop. director of his own company in 2004, last year he never received a F11 form or reminder from the tax office. As he is not clued in with Tax matters it never even clicked with him that he might have to fill in this form. Seemingly the tax office told his accountant today that they had a call logged from me and I said he was not a director of his company. I returned to work last year and rang up the tax office to inform them of my position and to get allowances. Never do I remember saying anything about my husband they did ask were we jointly assessed but that was it. His accountant is now submitting the F11 for 2005. Our accountants advise is to say nothing and see if they click that no form was filed for 2004. I am worried about penalties, would we be better off putting our hands up and saying there was mistake with the information in the tax office and we should have filed this F11. We are hoping to get a substantial tax reclaim this year as we have put large sums into pension schemes. Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[jfitzer]

Personally I would be seriously concerned about what your accountant is telling you. Your accountant should have registered your husband for Income Tax when he stated his business or have you just appointed the accountant and did all the start up yourself. Your husband is obliged to file a form 11 and should also pay pliminary tax for the year 2004 by 31st October 2004. By the sound of it he is still under the PAYE system, did your accountant register him in 2005 in order to file the form 11 or is he just sending in a form 11 anyway. In relation to interest, the revenue will not charge you interest on the preliminary tax for the first year of business. It would be advisable to get it sorted out, also the comment your accountant said in relation to the call logged from the revenue is a bit weird. Additionally, he may be paying incorrect PRSI, he probably should be Class S depending on his control.

 

[extopia]

Bear in mind also that proprietary directors of Limited Companies are obliged to operate PAYE/PRSI on wages or dividends taken out of the company so ask your accountant to make sure this is happening if he or she hasn't already set this up.

 

[howareya]

If it is only a new business your husband probably has no dividends from the company. The taxes on his salary should have been paid. Persuming you have no other income you will have a nil liability for 04. If i was you i'd submit it. There is no penalty on a zero liability, is there???

 

[ubiquitous]

There is no penalty on a zero liability, is there???

Unfortunately for company directors, there is: 10% of the total tax bill before PAYE deductions. (For everyone else the penalty is 10% of the total tax bill after PAYE deductions).

This anomaly makes for an ugly little catch-22 for directors who either forget to file a return, or who think they don't have to if they have no non-PAYE income. Accountants will tell you that the Revenue can be very inflexible in dealing with cases of this nature, hence Binky's accountant's advice above.

Binky, I think you should explore the matter further with your accountant and make a decision based on your discussions with them.

 

[Binky]

Thank you everyone for your advise. After much discussion with our accountant and a friend who is also an accountant, they have advised us to say nothing. They feel we are small fry and this may never come to light. I think we have learnt a valuble lesson, we need to be on top of all our finances, we had two small children in the last 4 years and we have found it difficult to juggle all the balls. It is only now we have started to look at the state of our finances. Thank you again.