Fattony
By the sounds of it you are a limited company which means you need to file accounts at Companies house as well as HMRC, You can file abbreviated accounts which shows far less information than the full accounts you need to file with HMRC along with the CT600 as you say
The biggest drawbacks of doing your own Ltd co accounts are the format required for Companies House to accept them and also understanding the tax adjustment needed for say capital allowances and disallowed expenses such as entertaining so that your returns are correct.
The easy part of doing it yourself is seeing what you can claim for, that info is out there both on the HMRC own guidebook and also on t'intermet
The one part I would really be careful of is when (not if) you get investigated by HMRC as penalties are far more extreme now and late filing penalties at Companies house (don't forget you only have 9 months not 10 now) are far more draconian from Feb 09
As much as you trades wince when you see some DIY "attempt" we accountants also cringe when we take on someone's case who thought they could deal with it and "save" money
And yes any decent accountant will probably be looking at £1k min for a limited company accounts year end "package". Sole traders are cheaper
Sage Instant (or whatever they have changed the name to these days!) is fine and cheap and pretty easy to use and it can grow with you as the business expands unlike some other programs. Quickbooks is Ok and I am sure the other ones mentiomned all do a job to a certain level
Best of luck
By the sounds of it you are a limited company which means you need to file accounts at Companies house as well as HMRC, You can file abbreviated accounts which shows far less information than the full accounts you need to file with HMRC along with the CT600 as you say
The biggest drawbacks of doing your own Ltd co accounts are the format required for Companies House to accept them and also understanding the tax adjustment needed for say capital allowances and disallowed expenses such as entertaining so that your returns are correct.
The easy part of doing it yourself is seeing what you can claim for, that info is out there both on the HMRC own guidebook and also on t'intermet
The one part I would really be careful of is when (not if) you get investigated by HMRC as penalties are far more extreme now and late filing penalties at Companies house (don't forget you only have 9 months not 10 now) are far more draconian from Feb 09
As much as you trades wince when you see some DIY "attempt" we accountants also cringe when we take on someone's case who thought they could deal with it and "save" money
And yes any decent accountant will probably be looking at £1k min for a limited company accounts year end "package". Sole traders are cheaper
Sage Instant (or whatever they have changed the name to these days!) is fine and cheap and pretty easy to use and it can grow with you as the business expands unlike some other programs. Quickbooks is Ok and I am sure the other ones mentiomned all do a job to a certain level
Best of luck
)
