London Capital and Finance

ColdIron

'A fool and his money ...'

Reaper

verybigchris wrote: »

Does knocking a day off your accounting period really give you a 3 month filing extension? If so, that's very convenient for any companies that have something to hide.

The whole business of being able to manipulate the accounting period is a major flaw to me. At the very least it should only apply to the NEXT accounting period to avoid companies using it to delay their current set of bad accounts.

P.S. they are not allowed to change the date if the current filing is overdue, which explains why they did it now, a few days before it was due.

HappyHarry

verybigchris wrote: »

This is weird. Their accounts were due on 27th October (as a PLC they have 6 months from the end of their financial year, which was 27th April). Yesterday they shortened their accounting period by one day (the third time they've done that in 12 months) and now their new deadline is 17th January 2019.


Does knocking a day off your accounting period really give you a 3 month filing extension? If so, that's very convenient for any companies that have something to hide. I've been waiting for the new accounts to see if the number of active loans they have has risen or if it's still just 11.



Companies House

Yes, shortening the period does give a 3 month extension.

See 6.2 in below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/life-of-a-company-annual-requirements/life-of-a-company-part-1-accounts#deadlines-for-filing-accounts

I understand that lengthening the period does too, but you can only do that once every 5 years.

Reaper

verybigchris wrote: »

Yesterday they shortened their accounting period by one day (the third time they've done that in 12 months)

I checked and apparently the rules are you can only lengthen the accounting period every 5 years, but you can shorten it as often as you want.
https://www.gov.uk/change-your-companys-year-end

It seems they have discovered a loophole with the deadline extension.

How investors like Holeydel can feel comfortable investing with a company like this is beyond me.

EDIT: Happy Harry beat me to it

HappyHarry

Reaper wrote: »

How investors like Holeydel can feel comfortable investing with a company like this is beyond me.

I doubt Holeydel feels comfortable at all.

However, once you've spent a large amount of money on something, it's very difficult openly admit a mistake has been made.

Malthusian

Not only that, but apparently you can use this trick to delay filing accounts indefinitely.

09 Jan 2018 Previous accounting period shortened from 29 April 2017 to 27 April 2017 View PDF Previous accounting period shortened from 29 April 2017 to 27 April 2017 - link opens in a new window - 1 page (1 page)
16 Oct 2017 Previous accounting period shortened from 30 April 2017 to 29 April 2017 View PDF Previous accounting period shortened from 30 April 2017 to 29 April 2017 - link opens in a new window - 1 page (1 page)

Translation: Their April 2017 accounts were due at the end of October 2017. However, in October 2017 they shortened the period by a day, giving them a three month extension to January 2018. Then, in January 2018, they did it again giving them an extension to April 2018. Then they finally filed the April 2017 accounts in February, which revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

This suggests you never actually have to file accounts, as there seems to be no limit to how many times you can pull this trick, unless you reach the point you have an accounting reference period of 1 day and it can't be shortened anymore. Eventually you would reach the point where your subsequent set of accounts is also out of date, but then you just shift the end date on that one as well.

AnotherJoe

Holeydel wrote: »

Nah, I still think they're alright for my circumstance.

But you are a self confessed know-nothing about financial matters, so your thoughts should be irrelevant even to you.

It would be like me stating that I'm confident the design of the HokeyCokey 2000 nuclear reactor sited next to my house is fine, because although i know nothing about reactor design, i liked their advert, despite experts in nuclear reactors telling me "actually these guys have not published their design", and in the small print it says "warning may melt down".

cloud_dog

HappyHarry wrote: »

I doubt Holeydel feels comfortable at all.

However, once you've spent a large amount of money on something, it's very difficult openly admit a mistake has been made.

Assuming Holeydel is actually an investor and not a different kind of `stakeholder`

EachPenny

cloud_dog wrote: »

Assuming Holeydel is actually an investor and not a different kind of `stakeholder`

The rapid switch from "I'm new here and don't really know what I'm talking about but..."* to "I'm right and you experienced people are wrong"* does suggest something fishy is going on... :whistle:

You'd have thought real newbies who are not sure of themselves would be asking a lot of questions by now....

ETA: *For clarity, the words in quotation marks were not the specific words used by Holeydel, but instead represent a precis of various posts.

AnotherJoe

EachPenny wrote: »

The rapid switch from "I'm new here and don't really know what I'm talking about but..." to "I'm right and you experienced people are wrong" does suggest something fishy is going on... :whistle:

You'd have thought real newbies who are not sure of themselves would be asking a lot of questions by now....

Simple self-delusion. Once you've committed, its hard to back pedal and admit you made a mistake, better for your sanity to hope it works out. There's a saying which covers a slightly different field but is still appropriate
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it"