The idea
The Companies House website has a very helpful Small Company Accounts template to enable web filing giving the minimum disclosure required by the Companies Act. This year HMRC (Corporation Tax) have started rejecting these abbreviated accounts and asking for a Directors' Report to be included in them. Most small companies (who have never been asked for this before) will have completed their accounts, adopted them at an AGM and sent them off to Companies House for filing before sending them to HMRC. The Directors Report, if included, is an integral part of the accounts, not just a page that can be added later.
Please can these two government departments get their act together to avoid this rediculous and time-consuming re-work for those in small companies who have enough legislation to keep up with at the best of times?
Why is it important?
Small companies have a huge amount of government generated paperwork to deal with. If two government departments need the same information (company accounts) then they should ask for that information in a form that satisfies them both.