I thought I was helping

Since self assessment started I have added notes to tax returns to help HMRC and to highlight matters which I thought were important.

I never realised that by including a note I was actually worsening the situation for my clients and myself. To cut a long story short I included the following note on the 2006 CT600 for a client company:

'A fully itemised director's loan account has been prepared for the year. Notional interest on the overdrawn balance has been calculated and debited to the director's loan accounts after the year end.'

HMRC when investigating the 2007 accounts disagreed with my method and said it should be included in the year it relates to rather than the following year. I didn't disagree but said as I had disclosed the treatment on the CT600 penalties should not be charged. I...