Agencies · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Two years behind, with Companies House penalties escalating
Seven unfiled VAT quarters, accounts overdue at Companies House, and a VAT control account that had never reconciled.
UK marketing agency, 18 staff, 900 transactions/month. Client identity withheld — we publish names only with written permission, so this engagement is described by its shape rather than by who it was.
7
VAT quarters filed
5 weeks
To current
£1,350
Further penalties avoided
The situation
- The agency's bookkeeper had left eighteen months earlier and was never replaced. Invoicing continued; reconciliation did not.
- Companies House filing was already late and the penalty was escalating on a fixed schedule.
What we found
- Seven VAT quarters unfiled, with points accrued under the penalty regime.
- A VAT control account carrying an unexplained balance dating back three years.
- Director's loan account never separated from general drawings, with tax consequences nobody had modelled.
- Client retainers billed in advance and recognised on invoice rather than over the service period.
What we did
- Triaged by deadline rather than chronology — Companies House first, because that penalty was actively escalating.
- Rebuilt eighteen months of records in MTD-compatible software with the digital link to the VAT return intact.
- Reconstructed and separated the director's loan account, then modelled the tax position.
- Corrected revenue recognition on retainers and restated the comparatives.
The outcome
- Accounts filed before the next penalty tier, and all seven VAT returns submitted with a documented reasonable-excuse position.
- The agency now closes monthly, and the director found the restated revenue picture materially different from what they had been managing against.
What we'd flag
The restated numbers were worse than the ones the director had been using. Correcting revenue recognition moved reported profit down — accurate, but not the outcome they hoped for.
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