Part Two - What responsibilities do you have as a Director?
As a company director you have responsibilities to co-operate with your accountant on the preparation and submission of your accounts, taxes and VAT. To think that because you appoint an accountant to do this work there is no responsibility is wrong, and if a filing is missed it is the Directors who will be held responsible by HM Revenue and Customs and Companies House.
Of course, you may hold the accountant responsible if they have not acted professionally or have not carried out your instructions.
Records. As a Director you are required by the Companies Act 2006 to make sure that you keep adequate records of the company’s transactions and that they are able to fairly represent the company’s financial position. The Directors are responsible for selecting suitable accounting policies, making judgements that are prudent and taking care to prevent fraud.
Accounts. The Directors must, once the accounts are prepared by the accountant and they are satisfied with the explanations given, authorise the submission of the accounts to Companies House and the company tax return to HM Revenue and Customs.
VAT return. The same responsibilities are also required for the preparation and submission of the company’s vat return. The Directors are obliged to make available to the accountants the information required to prepare the vat return and to answer honestly any queries that the accountants may have during this process. Once prepared the Directors will need to give approval for the vat return to be submitted.
The submission of the accounts, tax return, payroll, confirmation statement and VAT cannot be the responsibility of the accountants, it must be given by the Director of the company. If it is not given and the accounts, tax return and VAT are not submitted the ultimate responsibility for non-submission will fall with the company director. Once of these documents are submitted the company will be obliged to pay any tax or VAT that is due, the authority to do this can therefore only be given by the company director.
