The proposed alignment of the two filing deadlines has been a major concern for corporates, who feared that bringing the two dates together would create a massive administrative burden for companies.

Business was concerned that the alignment dates would have cut the amount of time available to do tax returns by three or five months to seven or nine months.

The matter was opened up for consultation in November 2005 with both HM Revenue & Customs and Companies House calling for the two filing dates to be aligned.

The move was vociferously opposed, with a number of business interest groups arguing that aligning the dates would over-burden companies.

In its submission to the consultation the CBI said the proposals from the government reflected ‘a lack of understanding of what is involved in the process of preparing company accounts and tax computations’.

The change would also increase compliance costs and reduce efficiency, the CBI said.

The government did not explicitly state it was dropping the proposal at the pre-Budget report, saying it was still under review. But, as tax advisers are aware in relation to the non-domicile rules, that tends to mean it has been put on ice, if not ditched altogether.

John Cullinane, Deloitte tax partner and Chartered Institute of Taxation president, said the decision to call off the alignment of the two sets of filings would save businesses from significant administrative costs.

‘Many large businesses think that the concept of aligning the filing date for corporation tax purposes with that for Companies House purposes is misconceived in principle,’ Cullinane said.

He added that for many large businesses the filing of the two sets of documents was seen as sequential.

‘Many businesses do not start to prepare the company tax return until the Companies House return has been completed,’ Cullinane said.