Issues

Before choosing an accountant - and in fact, before even deciding you need one - you must be clear about what such help can do for you and your business. The best-known ones are, of course, reducing your tax bill. This is what most people think of when they decide to take on an accountant. This is indeed true, but there are also some other services and support functions that an accountant can provide for freelancers, sole traders, limited companies, and partnership business; please find below some of them:

Start-Up

Many of our clients have one thing in common - they are entrepreneurial businesses. We know the issues you're facing and get a genuine buzz from finding just the correct accounting or business solution to help your ambitious start-up take off.

Support

You'll find we're great listeners and can give you a fresh perspective and financial insight on things you may have come to take for granted. We can help you prioritise and focus on the business issues that matter.

Growth

To realise your full potential, you need to see the bigger picture. Your growing business needs financial advice that reflects the changing dynamics of your financial situation and an effective growth strategy to ensure business success.

Stay Competitive

Adapting to changing market conditions is the key to your success - reviewing and re-establishing goals and plans where necessary to build a robust strategy. Seeking the best financial advice as early as possible is essential to ensure continued business growth.

Exit Planning

Getting your exit right is all about planning. The more prepared you are, the easier it is to negotiate from a position of strength. Our role is to offer sensible financial advice and protect your interests regarding the sale price, your tax burden and post-sale risk exposure.

Savings as a Self-Employed

Self-employed people can deduct some of these costs to work out their taxable profit as long as they're allowable expenses. Allowable expenses don't include money taken from businesses to pay for private purchases. If They run their own limited company, they need to follow different rules. As self-employed, people can claim all their tax-deductible expenses, including cash expenditure, where eligible. These includes:

• Office costs-stationery or phone bills
• Travel costs- fuel, parking, train or bus fares
• Clothing expenses- uniforms
• Staff costs- salaries or subcontractor costs
• Things they buy to sell on- stock or raw materials
• Financial costs- insurance or bank charges
• Costs of their business premises- heating, lighting, business rates
• Advertising or marketing-website costs

If they use traditional accounting, they can claim capital allowances when they buy something they keep to use in their business equipment, machinery, business vehicles-cars, vans, lorries. If they use cash basis accounting and buy a car for their business, they can claim this as a capital allowance. However, all other items they purchase and keep for their business should be declared as allowable expenses in the usual way. They can only claim allowable expenses for the business costs. If they work from home, they may be able to claim a proportion of their expenses for things like heating, electricity, Council Tax, mortgage interest or rent, internet and telephone use. They can avoid using complex calculations to work out their business expenses by using simplified expenses. Simplified expenses are flat rates that can be used for: vehicles, working from home and living on their business premises.

They can claim the running costs of a car but not the cost of buying one. If they use the exact vehicle privately, they can claim a proportion of the total costs. As a business owner, they can choose when their accounting year-end is. If they decide on a year-end accounting date earlier in the tax year, they will have more time to pay their profits. This means that as their earnings increase, their tax bill will rise more slowly. The more time they have, the less likely they will fall susceptible to fines for late tax assessments.

As self-employed, they can carry forward losses from one year and offset them against profits from the next. If they expect to earn less in the current year than they did the year before then, they can apply to reduce any payments on account that HMRC asks them to make.

• Provide a friendly, courteous and efficient service
• Always exceed your paybacks
• Listen to what you say
• Communicate with you quickly and fully
• Never be surprised with bills that you do not expect
• Be honest, honest and candid with you at all times
• Aim for you to pay the least tax possible according to the law
• Provide proactive business advice whenever possible