Who Could Use CATO to File Their Returns with HMRC?
In the ideal world, it wouldn’t cost businesses any money to file their annual tax returns and accounts with HMRC and Companies House, respectively. Luckily, for some companies, this dream is a reality thanks to the Company Accounts and Tax Online (CATO) service, when most of the companies choose to work with a software vendor.
A service designed for small companies
CATO is intended for use by micro-entities and small companies who are exempt from filing audited accounts and have uncomplicated tax affairs.
Subject to certain restrictions, a company has three filing options under CATO. They can:
- Submit their company tax return (CT600) online to HMRC;
- Submit their company accounts to Companies House; or
- Submit their company tax return and company accounts to HMRC and Companies House at the same time.
For example, if a company wants to use CATO to file their CT600 with HMRC, then that entity must be either a charity with the turnover of up to £6.5 million per year or be a particular type of company with the turnover of up to £632,000 per year. Different restrictions are also in place for the other CATO filing options.
CATO isn’t for everyone
As seen above, not every company can use the CATO service. What’s more, tax agents are specifically prevented from using it.
As a result, if you’re a larger company, your accounts require auditing, or you have more complicated tax affairs (for instance, if your company is in liquidation or is part of a group) then you may have to rely on commercial software or iXBRL tagging and conversion service vendor to file your company’s accounts and tax returns.
DataTracks has over a decade of experience working with companies to convert their accounts and tax returns into iXBRL format for filing with HMRC, with over 50,000 error-free iXBRL filings completed to date.
