The Inland Revenue Division's corporate income tax information sheet provides for filing within three months of the end of the financial year. The company's financial statements must accompany the return; the obligation therefore extends beyond transmitting a standalone form.
The starting point is the company's own year-end. We note that a deadline for another return does not determine this period. The obligation concerned and the financial year to which it relates must first be identified, then the return reconciled with the accompanying financial statements.
Year-end planning must therefore allow time to prepare the accounts accompanying the return. A form ready to send is insufficient if those documents are unavailable. For a group with several companies, a timetable based on each year-end avoids adopting an unjustified common date. Monitoring payments should remain separately identifiable so that filing a return is not confused with paying the tax.
The sheet also distinguishes annual filing from instalment payments. Completing one of these steps does not establish that the others have been satisfied. For a particular company, the payment schedule and any applicable adjustments still need to be examined, without inferring a general tax payment deferral from the filing deadline.