Year End

The year end is the last day of a company’s financial year

Financial year or financial period

The financial year is the period over which a company measures its performance. It can but does not have to correspond to a calendar year. At the end of the financial year the company will prepare its annual report to shareholders. All quoted companies also have to prepare interim reports and companies listed on the main […]

Capacity market

The capacity market is a mechanism introduced by the UK Government to manage security of electricity supply in the UK and to safeguard against the possibility of blackouts. Capacity market participants are paid to ensure they are available to respond when there is a high risk that a system stress event could occur. Electricity suppliers […]

REFIT – Irish subsidy

REFIT is an acronym for renewable energy feed-in tariff. It was the Irish government’s subsidy scheme for renewable energy but closed to applications at the end of 2015, to be replaced by RESS in 2019. The REFIT schemes were designed to provide certainty to renewable electricity generators by providing them with a minimum price for […]

Feed in tariff

The Feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme ceased to apply for new projects after April 2019. Ahead of this it was only available for projects capable of producing less than 5MW. New projects attracted a subsidy per KWh for electricity produced. The overall cost of new accreditations under the FIT scheme to the government was capped however. FITs […]

Renewable Heat Incentive

Eligible installations, such as anaerobic digestion plants, can receive subsidies under the non-domestic renewable heat incentive (RHI). RHI payments are made quarterly over 20 years and vary according to the amount of heat generated, depending on the build date. Tier one subsidies apply to plants producing less than 40,000 MWh, tier two applies to production […]

Real Estate Investment Trust or REIT

Real Estate Investment Trust or REIT – A REIT is a listed property company in a tax efficient structure: REITs must pay out 90% of their property income to shareholders every year. REITs must be primarily engaged in property investment, rather than in development or other non-property related activities. As REITs are all listed property […]

Auditor

Every quoted company has to have its accounts audited. The choice of auditor is approved at the AGM. The auditor’s job is to make sure the accounts have been prepared properly and give a true reflection of the company’s position at end of the financial year. As part of that process, most audits will include […]

Annual Report

The Annual Report is the Board’s main method of communication with a company’s shareholders. The layout and the contents of the report is determined by a variety of rules and regulations which, over the years, have made the report longer and longer and, to most shareholders, more incomprehensible. Usually though the Chairman’s Report near the […]

Annual General Meeting

Every quoted UK domiciled company holds a meeting each year – the Annual General Meeting or AGM – where shareholders get to vote on matters important for the company. The agenda usually includes approving the Annual Report and Accounts, approving the remuneration policy and the Directors’ remuneration report, reappointing the auditor and approving their fee, […]

Venture Capital Trust

A quoted closed-end fund set up specifically to provide private equity capital to small companies. Investors in venture capital trusts can typically get tax relief for investing in these funds, the dividends are not subject to income tax and any capital gain is exempt from capital gains tax. The rules on how large these tax […]

Glossary

Year End