BTC - Basis Period - last minute plea for help!

E=mc2

Can anyone offer any advice on working out the basis period of account. I am studying from the BPP BTC book and this problem is giving me a headache for sole traders and partnerships.
I understand the tax period 6Apr0X - 05Apr0Y. But working out the basis year and overlap is totally going over my head!

I think I have got to the point now of studying so much im going into brain meltdown, and this only being chapter4 of the book, I figured on it being easier!

Any help much appreciated!

burg

Try this link http://www.tolleytraining.co.uk/miscellaneous/demos/BT%20demo%20-%20Manual%20Ch%205.PDF as it describes it quite well.

If you are still stuck then please post again

E=mc2

Thank you for the link! Its getting better - just hope it sticks in time for Tuesday!

jimmyt1988

Just for information i went through something the other day about this,

draw 3 lines on a piece of paper, from 6/4/07 - 5/4/08, and 6/4/08 - 5/4/09 etc for 3 years, with the first line being the year your start date falls into.

Mark on the lines your Business commencement date, and your first year end date + any year end dates after that.

Your first year is always from the start date, to the end of the first line, apportioning where necessary. For example if your start date is 1st June 2008, your would do 1st June 2008 - 31st March 2009.

Your second year varies, if the year end falls on the second line, you go 12 months back from that date and calculate. For example, 31st June 2009, you would calculate 1st July 2008 through to 31st June 2009. If you can only go back 7 months from the first year end (ie a short period), you must extend it 5 months after the year end date. If NO year end date appears on the second line, you calculate it from 1st April - 31st March on the second line.

Third year is always calculate 12 months back from the financial year end date for the year. So i make a mark on the third line and go 12 months back and calculate.

Any period that falls into 2 different years is your overlap, you should be able to see this on a diagram.

Hope this helps, hard to explain in text, but i did this for my group at college and it seemed to reep rewards for them, If you need me to explain more in detail, i will attempt to, just ask.

Thanks and good luck,
Jamie

E=mc2

thank you so much for that Jamie! Its an interesting approach and im gonna work with it now! At this point im really willing to try anything!