These pages are intended to help software developers and substitute form producers to create their products.
On this page:
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) publishes all the forms currently in use on these pages and identifies them by the letter 'P' in the table linked to this page.
To help you prepare your changes, drafts of forms not yet published, identified by the letter 'D', will appear in the table as soon HMRC prepares them. Please note that no substitute forms should be published or brought into use based on drafts. HMRC asks you to wait until they publish the final versions, identified by the letter 'P' in the table below, before seeking substitute approval and publishing your version.
As a result of the March 2013 Budget, HMRC will be issuing a CT600 Budget Insert (March 2013) and updating the CT600 Guide. There will be changes to the online validation that applies to the Research and Development (R&D) and films enhanced expenditure section of the CT600 arising from the introduction of a new ‘Above the Line’ R&D tax credit and new reliefs for creative production companies.
The main rate of Corporation Tax for 2013 is 23 per cent and the small profits rate is 20 per cent. The standard Marginal Relief fraction is 3/400. The rates for ring fence profits are unchanged.
There will be a further one percentage point reduction for the financial year beginning 1 April 2014, in addition to the reductions announced in the June Budget 2010, Budget 2011 and Budget 2012. This will take the rate to 21 per cent in April 2014. There will be a further 1 per cent reduction from April 2015 and the small profits rate and main rate will be unified at 20 per cent.
HMRC will consider the implications of this unified rate on their systems and issue further information in due course.
Subject to State Aid approval, the Government will introduce tax reliefs in respect of high-end television, animation and video games production from 1 April 2013.
The main CT600 Company Tax Return form does not need to be updated as a claim for each relief may be made in the same way as for Film Tax Relief using the existing boxes on the CT600 and by providing detailed calculations in the Corporation Tax computations. HMRC will be updating the CT600 Guide shortly and will be amending existing validation in its systems in October.
The measure introduces a credit for R&D investment by large companies at a pre tax rate of 10 per cent which is payable to companies with no Corporation Tax liability.
Companies can claim the credit for qualifying expenditure incurred on or after 1 April 2013. The scheme is initially optional and companies who do not claim the R&D expenditure credit can continue to make claims under the super-deduction scheme for qualifying expenditure incurred on or before 31 March 2016. From 1 April 2016 the expenditure credit will replace the current scheme.
The R&D expenditure credit is a taxable receipt and paid net of tax to companies with no Corporation Tax liability. The credit will be paid at a higher headline rate to companies in the oil and gas ring-fence, to reflect the higher rate of tax paid and maintain the current levels of relief received under the super-deduction scheme.
Any payable element will be limited with reference to PAYE or National Insurance contribution liabilities, with any capped amount being available for carry forward and treated as a credit for the following year.
The payable element is available to discharge Corporation Tax liabilities of other accounting periods of the claimant company or the Corporation Tax liabilities of group companies.
The balance after applying the PAYE or National Insurance contribution cap and discharging any liabilities is payable under deduction of notional tax at the main rate of Corporation Tax applying for the accounting period (including the supplementary charge for ring fence trades).
The payable amount will also be subject to the general right of HMRC to cover any other liability.
Any notional tax retained is carried forward and will be available to discharge the claimant company’s liability in preference to any R&D expenditure credit of the following year.
The underlying rules for identifying qualifying activity and calculating qualifying expenditure are unaffected by the introduction of the ‘Above the Line’ R&D expenditure credit scheme.
The CT600 Company Tax Return form does not need to be updated as a claim for 'Above the Line' tax credit may be made in a similar way as claims for existing R&D tax credits using the existing boxes on the CT600 and by providing detailed calculations in the Corporation Tax computations. HMRC will be updating the CT600 Guide shortly and will be amending existing validation in its systems in October.Annual Investment Allowance - temporary increase to £250,000 for two years
Legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2013 to increase the maximum amount of the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) from £25,000 to £250,000 for a temporary period of two years from 1 January 2013.
Transitional rules will apply where a business has a chargeable period that straddles either of these dates:
Corporation Tax Online will be updated with the new AIA annual limit in April 2013. Until then, it will use the earlier AIA limit.
Find detailed information about the temporary increase in AIA and the transitional rules
Accurate facsimiles of the official Company Tax Return forms (based on the final paper format) can be accepted in accordance with Statement of Practice SP5/87. The design of substitute returns and supplementary pages must be centrally approved by HMRC before they are marketed or brought into use.
Quark versions of the return forms
Draft versions have no legal status and are not in a prescribed form. They must not be used by companies to deliver their Company Tax Returns.
To save a document to your hard drive, right click on the link and choose the 'Save' option. All these forms are in PDF format. To view a PDF document you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your machine.
Tip: if you are having difficulty locating a particular form on this page, press Ctrl and F to find it.