Hi, I mistakenly overpaid HMRC through the PAYE system on one occasion. So I tagged that bank payment to the PAYE nominal account (2210) which ended up with a debit balance at year end.
My exceedingly modest accounting knowledge leads me to believe that this contra-liability is an asset and should show up as such on the balance sheet, which it does not.
What can I do to fix this? Or am I thinking this completely wrong?
Yes, a debit balance on 2210 is an asset, and if it’s not showing as such on the balance sheet then the most likely explanation is that you’ve got the wrong date selected on the balance sheet report (which is very easy to do - I’ve never worked out the logic for what date it selects by default).
Where are you seeing the “debit balance at year end”?
If you’re looking at the chart of accounts then the number you see there isn’t necessarily the balance, it’s the net total of transactions on that nominal in the period you’re looking at. An account might show +£XXX in the chart of accounts but if that account had a balance of -£XXX at the period start then the actual balance at the end of that period would be zero (and it won’t appear on the balance sheet at that date). The trial balance report might be a better place to look than the CoA.
I booked this as a liability in the previous tax year when I mistakenly thought that I had underpaid HMRC. And this year I made the payment which cancelled out the liability.
I had completely forgotten about that. I should have looked at the trial balance instead of the balance sheet report, as you suggested.