HM Revenue & Customs ("HMRC") this month became the second UK
Government agency to have received company tax filings using the new
XBRL electronic reporting standard.
The announcement that HMRC has received corporation tax
submissions using XBRL, the international standard for describing
business and financial data, follows the successful launch of the
XBRL-based electronic filing service for annual returns at Companies
House earlier this year.
The HMRC service incorporates tax computations which are formatted
in XBRL and automatically validated, upon receipt, against HMRC's
computations taxonomy, ensuring the accuracy and comparability of
information used by companies to carry out their tax calculations. The
validation is carried out by DecisionSoft's True North, the world's
most widely used XBRL processor. DecisionSoft also developed the XBRL
taxonomy and the XML schemas used by the service. "Their breadth of
experience in e-filing and XBRL has played a vital role in the success
of this project," said Jeff Smith, Manager of the HMRC project for
electronic corporation tax filing.
The receipt of the first XBRL corporation tax filings by HMRC
follows the recommendation of Lord Carter of Coles, leading the review
of HMRC's online services, that online tax filings should be extended
to cover all UK companies. HMRC has announced their intention of
moving to mandatory online filing of corporation tax by 2010.
About XBRL
XBRL is a freely licensed, open XML standard, used for the
electronic
communication of business and financial data between companies,
regulators and investors. The XBRL standard is managed by a
not-for-profit international consortium of around 480 companies,
organisations and government agencies.
The XBRL standard allows agreed concepts, such as UK GAAP or IFRS
accounting standards, to be defined and exchanged between compliant
systems. XBRL is being used for the corporate financial data submitted
to a growing number of regulatory filing programmes around the world,
including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation in the US.
About HM Revenue & Customs
HM Revenue & Customs is responsible, under the overall direction
of UK Treasury ministers, for the efficient administration of income
tax, tax credits, corporation tax, capital gains tax, petroleum
revenue tax, inheritance tax, national insurance contributions, stamp
duties, VAT and customs duties. It has taken the lead in the
Government's initiative to provide all UK citizens with "joined-up"
internet access to all Government services.
Web: www.hmrc.gov.uk
About DecisionSoft
DecisionSoft Limited, founded in 1997, is one of Europe's leading
XML vendors, with a substantial history in the successful design,
publication and validation of XML and XBRL for Government departments
and Fortune 500 companies.
DecisionSoft's True North suite provides enterprise-strength XBRL
processing, and is used to support the XBRL-enabled filing programmes
run by Companies House and HM Revenue & Customs. The flagship True
North validator is used widely throughout the financial reporting
industry and by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Boasting
world-leading XBRL developers, DecisionSoft products are regarded by
many as the "gold standard" in this field.
DecisionSoft is a privately held company based in Oxford, England.
Web: www.decisionsoft.com
