COM153080 - CT Pay and File: claims / reliefs: ACT: how to give act carry-back in assessment

Before making or amending an assessment to give effect to an ACT carry-back see section:

  • COM153070 (Clerical Interest Indicator)
  • COM153060 (Correcting Interest - responsible CT office).

ACT carry-back claimed in the return

COTAX does not allow you to fastpath assess any AP if the return includes ACT carried back from a later AP. You must use Function PAST (Prepare Full Assessment) or Function PASR (Prepare Assessment Based On Return) to make any assessment including carry-backs.

You must enter each amount of ACT carried back separately, showing the AP from which it comes.

Note: This may involve you having to break down the figure for ACT set-off shown in the return.

For most cases, COTAX automatically works out for each amount carried back:

  • the Effective Date of Payment (EDP (Word 41KB)) for interest purposes and, if relevant
  • what is allowable as tax paid at the 18 month point for tax geared penalty purposes.

Although COTAX shows individual amounts carried back, the notice of assessment shows single total figures for ACT carried back or set-off in the assessment.

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Claim for ACT carry-back after assessment made

You can usually deal with a carry-back to a CT Pay and File AP by amending an existing assessment using Function PAST (Prepare Full Assessment). If you have not yet made an assessment for the AP, you should consider making it.

If you need to give credit for a carry-back in the following circumstances, consider using Function RECB (Record Amounts Carried Back):

  • carry-back not reflected in the return logged for the receiving AP
  • you have not made the assessment
  • you are not in a position to make the assessment at once.

See COM153100 for more information.

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Making the assessment after a carry back has been recorded using Function RECB

When you amend or make the assessment using Function PAST (Prepare Full assessment), enter any carry-backs in the appropriate fields in screen COT120F and note that:

  • the carry-back is not automatically entered on screen COT120F or reflected in the assessment
  • payment type postings resulting from your use of Function RECB are reversed
  • any non-standard EDP you entered in Function RECB is lost.

Note: COTAX warns you of this. If you have posted a carry-back using Function RECB and later use the assessing function, the message ‘WARNING: CARRY-BACKS ALREADY PRESENT ON THIS ACCOUNTING PERIOD’ appears when you enter screen COT120F.

See COM153081 for a list of functions to use in particular situations.