Do you keep the required documents

Having the Right Documents to Back Up the Accounts

As a director of a company you have an obligation to submit your accounts to HM Revenue & Customs whether this is done by the company or your accountant. They will then do internal checks to make sure that your company is paying the right amount of tax at the right time and if not they may look into the financial statement and corporation tax return by an investigation.

Dividend Vouchers

Make sure you have dividend vouchers to back up the amounts that have been voted as in the financial Statements (Accounts) failure to this may result in HM Revenue & Customs questioning the dividend and a possibly disallowing them.

This can be done by your accountant or in house but they should be done so it makes them official compared to just paying them out from the company bank account.

Management Accounts Minutes

If you prepare management accounts and hold a management meeting to discuss these then you should have minutes of what is discussed.

The reason for this is that once as set of minutes has been prepared on the discussions taken place this makes them official and should be distributed to those in attendance.

Minutes for the Financial Statements

You should always have minutes for the financial statements so that they can the accounts being approved and the dividends being agreed.

You should also include anything agreed in the meeting that may have an effect on the following years trading e.g. decision of company car policy.

 Signed Copies of Minutes

Signed copies of the minutes should be kept a proof, so if you are sending them out to be signed by everyone present them you will need ensure that you get this back.

Payroll Documents

When taking on a new team member during the application process is vital that you establish if they have the right to remain in the UK, if they do then they will have documentation to evidence and you should request this and keep a copy of file.

You should also keep a copy of their driving licence or passports something with a picture on it to prove they are the same candidate.

Driving Licence

When you have someone, who works for the company and they use a company vehicle a car or van you should hold a copy of their driving licence as evidence that they have the right to drive and not banned for such offences as speeding.

Just think of the consequences if one of the company vehicles was involved in an accident and it later revealed that the driver had no licence or banned, and the local media was aware of this the company name around the local community would be damaged.