Short Tax Returns ?

HadynB

My wife qualifies for completing a short tax return and I was reading the notes on it and it says you are only allowed to use the short return if you account on a cash basis, instead of the 'true and fair basis'. This is pretty straight forward, but if you then read on where it goes into details about box 8 - Business income, it says you must include any money due to you - whether or not you have been paid. Am I being silly here, or is that not treating the income on a the true and fair basis anyway as cash accounting would mean it gets recorded when it gets paid ? ?

HadynB

To pose a more direct question, her financial year is as per the tax year and she receives payment for her fees at the beginning of each month, so under a cash basis, she pays tax on the whole of her Apirl fee up front. Given the above, would it be wrong to apportion the fee between the current and next financial year, or is that seen as the using the true and fair method. I could do prepayments/accruals etc but it's only a small business so it's nice to keep it all simple and use the short return. I've tried ringing the tax office and got two different answers!