Absolutely! Our pricing is fixed based on the level of turnover, transactions, employees etc. so as you grow we can adapt and increase the level of servicing you need.
In an ideal world, they would be registered and licenced under a professional accounting body, that way, they are staying up to date with the various changes to tax and accounting to provide you with the best service. Optimise Accountants & Tax Advisors are a firm of chartered accountants and chartered tax advisors, holding the highest qualifications in the UK!
In our experience, appointing an accountant as soon as you can is ideal. Accounting and tax can be a minefield and it’s important to ensure you are set up correctly from the start to avoid ay pitfalls.
Appointing an accountant will free up your time to grow your business. Not only that, with a experienced chartered accountancy firm you’ll have access to knowledge to save you money.
The accountant is probably one of the most important business relationships you’ll have, it’s vital to ensure there is a rapport and they understand what you want to achieve in your business. Other factors to ask would be the use of systems, costs involved, level of expertise and communication.
Everything is moving towards digital, that includes HMRC! Making Tax Digital is a Government initiative which has been put in place to support HMRC and its plan to digitise the tax system in the UK. The goal is to encourage business owners and self-employed individuals to keep digital records of their taxes and process their VAT returns online.
If you own a VAT-registered business, then you will now be required to keep digital records and submit VAT returns through compatible software. HMRC will automatically sign up future businesses to Making Tax Digital.
At Optimise Accountants & Tax Advisors, we can help you integrate accounting software that works alongside the MTD initiative, ensuring you stay compliant.
Working towards a deadline can be stressful, which is where a well-organised and experienced VAT accountant can be handy. The date for submitting your VAT return and when you will need to pay HMRC is usually one month and seven days after your VAT period.
As with any deadline, you should always allow time to submit your files and ensure payments are processed correctly. Organised business owners will be happy to know that you can find out when your VAT payment date is and any additional important information on your Government Gateway account.
Figuring out how much money you owe to HMRC in preparation for submitting your VAT return is a relatively simple process. You will need to calculate the difference between the VAT charged on your goods and services and the VAT your company pays on business purchases. Keeping records of all sales and purchases will make working out your VAT return much less complicated.
This depends on where your business is at in it’s lifecycle, what sector it’s in, and the goals that you want to set for the business.
Typically management accounts will include:
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
Profit & loss report
Balance Sheet
Cash flow
Whilst these are the usual things to include in a management report, it can be customised to what you want to see and how you want to see it.
In short no, management accounts are not statutory and HMRC nor companies house do not need to see them. However, if you want to stay on top of your business, grow and receive up to date and relevant information and metric to aid decision making or answer questions then we believe it’s a vital service for aspiring business owners.
Reading management accounts can be complicated, and without proper guidance, they simply join the pile of paperwork on your desk.
One tip we often say is to think beyond the accounting details.
Ask yourself – where does my business make its money? Is it a particular service or good sold? If so, are you splitting this out so you can track its activity each month?
How are you monitoring the performance of your team? Some measure activity levels, whilst others may monitor output.
Aim to identify no more than 5 key performance indicators (KPIs) that you would like to monitor. They don’t need to be all financial. Think about other parts of the business too, such as the time taken to pick an item of stock, or how quickly a service can be turned around from the job coming in, to being finished for your customers.
An application can be made to companies house to form a limited company. The steps involved are generally deciding the name, choosing the directors/secretaries, deciding the shareholder or guarantors and preparing documentation on how the company will be run.
The cost to companies house is £50 or £78 for a same day service.
Typical information would be the company name, registered office address, details of the director(s) and shareholder(s), SIC codes and share structures.
A SIC code is a 5 digit code that classifies a companies industry.
The deadlines for self assessment that you should be aware of are:
5 October – deadline to register for self assessment for the first time.
31 October – paper return deadline
31 January – online filing of tax return deadline
31 January – tax payment deadline (1)
(1) If you’ve already made payments on account, you may have already partially paid towards this bill.
31 July – payment on account
You can pay your tax bill using the following methods:
Online or telephone banking
CHAPS or BACS
Debit card online (by credit card is no longer available)
Direct debit
Cheque
At your bank or building society
In some cases, HMRC require individuals to pay in advance of the following tax year. This is calculated by taking the total income tax and class 4 NIC due in the prior year with one payment (50%) paid in the January in the current tax year and the other payment in the July following the current tax year (remaining 50%).
Income tax and class 2 and class 4 national insurance contributions vary depending on the type and level of income. For example, generally, self-employment income will be subject to 20%, 40% and 45% income tax and class 2 and class 4 national insurance.
A confirmation statement should be filed once a year (annually) and will coincide with the date that the company was formed with companies house.
All companies are required by law to keep and maintain up-to-date registers of key details.
These include:
- a register of members (shareholders),
- a register of directors,
- a register of charges (for things like mortgages or finance agreements that require a guarantee),
- a register of persons with significant control (PSC register).
The details in these registers include (but are not limited to) names, addresses, dates of appointment and resignation for company directors. The details for members (shareholders) include the number and type of shares held.
The deadline for submitting company accounts is 9 months after your company’s financial year end. The payment for corporation tax is due 9 months and 1 day after your company’s financial year end.
Generally, anything that is wholly and exclusively in running the business is deductible. However, there a certain rules and reliefs for certain expenses so we always recommend working with an accountant to not only ensure everything is correct, but maximizing the reliefs available.
The current rate of corporation tax is 19%, and is payable on taxable profits.Corporation tax has increased to 25% in 2023 in line with Budget announcements, for businesses with taxable profits above £250,000. Businesses between £50,000 – £249,999 will have a corporation tax rate between 19% and 25%.
A limited company is a separate entity for legal purposes. Individuals are often shareholders (subscribers of shares in the limited company) and/or directors who run the limited company on behalf of its shareholders.
You must keep records for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to, or longer if:
- they show a transaction that covers more than one of the company’s accounting periods
- the company has bought something that it expects to last more than 6 years, like equipment or machinery
- you sent your Company Tax Return late
- HMRC has started a compliance check into your Company Tax Return
The process starts with a discovery call on what you want to achieve, we can then build up a picture and start to gather the information. From there, we will build our analysis based on the current tax legislation and present the options in a report format. A follow up call is scheduled to run through the outcome and discuss next steps and implementation if required.
As a bespoke service, this is our only service we charge an hourly rate for which is £250 plus VAT per hour.
There is nothing stopping you keeping the receipts in physical form, however that adds up to a lot of show boxes, let alone paper cuts! We recommend using a cloud accounting provider (we love Xero) and a receipts capture platform like Dext.
In an ideal world, no less than monthly to stay on top of it. We provide weekly, monthly and even quarterly bookkeeping services to clients to support their budget and business requirements.
If you’re self employed you must keep your records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year.
For limited companies, you must keep records for six years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to.
We’ve put together a handy guide of our top 10 bookkeeping tips here.
Payroll real time information (RTI) should be submitted to the HMRC no later than the 19th of the following month after payroll has been run. Payment of your tax liabilities under payroll need to reach the HMRC by the 22nd of the following month (3 days after the RTI deadline), unless you pay quarterly.
No! You can transfer payroll providers at any point during the year. Your previous payroll provider just needs to provide us with your payroll records, which will include the amounts paid for the year to date.
UTR stands for unique taxpayer reference. It is a number that the HMRC assigns to each taxpayer when they register to pay taxes, either as a self employed person or as a business.
A UTR number is 10 digit number and is sometimes referred to as a tax reference number.
The CIS period covers the 6th to 5th of each month. The deadline for to file is the 19th with any payments due to HMRC by the 22nd.
To register as a CIS contractor, you’ll need to become an employer. Once done, HMRC will provide the information needed to start operating in the CIS scheme. See HMRC CIS section here.
The best way is to register online using your government gateway (you will need to create one if you don’t have one already) and complete the form on their CIS section here.
The rules changed in March 2021 and can be complex for as and when to apply (or not) the reverse charge scheme for VAT under CIS. Our VAT services page has more information.
Auto-enrolment is a government initiative that requires all employers (even those who just have one member of staff) to automatically enrol certain staff into a pension scheme and make contributions towards it. Usually the staff member will also have to make contributions to the pension scheme which the government may top up with tax relief.