Hi, I have been using Quickfile for my sole trader accounts for years. I went into a partnership with my wife at the beginning of this financial year and became VAT registered on 1st December.
I have just been carrying on doing the accounts as I always had and have now realised I did not change the business type to partnership in April and have now added my VAT number and their is only one lot of personal allowance accounted for.
Have I really messed up here of can my accounts be salvaged?
There’s very little difference between the account types on QuickFile. In fact, adding a separate bank account and calling it “Partner Drawings Account”, or similar, would pretty much put you in the same position as the partnership accounts.
A partnership is pretty much the same as having two or more sole traders working under one business name, and each would have their own self assessment etc. when the time comes. If you have one, your accountant should be able to advise you on this.
Personal allowance doesn’t come into play with VAT, so nothing would have been missed here.
As I’m sure you’ve worked out, you have to submit a separate partnership return under the partnership’s UTR that declares the partnership’s turnover & expenses and claims any capital allowances, then the final taxable profit or loss from the partnership return is split across the partners’ individual SA returns (not necessarily 50/50 - this is the point where personal allowances come into play, and where it’s most beneficial to have an accountant involved as they can work out the best way to split things to maximise your respective allowances, or adjust if one of you is close to the higher rate threshold and the other is well below it, etc.).
