Specialist tax advisors who see the bigger picture.

Deciding whether you need an accountant to help with your tax return comes down to how much work is required and how confident you are with tax legislation. It’s also worth putting a value on your own time and weighing up whether that time is better spent on your business and what value you put on peace of mind knowing that your return has been submitted by a professional.

HMRC have increased the number of tax enquiries, with most enquiries now generated by computer “risk pro­filing” while other are selected at random. Even if you have done nothing wrong, you are still at risk of being enquired. The enquiries are extremely detailed and HMRC will try hard to ­and errors. You can read more about tax investigations here.

In short, tax investigations are on the rise. Having massively boosted their workforce, HMRC are on a drive to recoup unpaid taxes which means they are casting the net wider. In the event that you are subject to an investigation, any fees incurred by us (assuming you have not broken the law) should be covered.

The deadline for submitting your Self Assessment tax return is 31^st January and any tax liability is due to be paid the same day. Depending on your circumstances, you are likely to need to make a ‘payment on account’ on 31^st July in the same year.

‘Payments on account’ are advance payments towards your tax bill (including Class 4 National Insurance if you’re self-employed).

The current UK VAT registration threshold stands at £85,000. The government has stated that this threshold will remain unchanged until 2024.

Once your business’s turnover reaches the VAT threshold, you have 30 days to register for VAT with HMRC. Once you’re registered, your business has a new range of responsibilities including:

• Charging VAT on your products or services
• Paying VAT on the goods or services supplied by your suppliers
• Submitting your VAT return to HMRC
• Maintaining a VAT account and records

BIK stands for Benefit in Kind, and this covers certain fringe benefits given by employers which are not included in the employee’s salary. Typical examples include company cars, private medical insurance, child car vouchers etc.

There are many factors to consider when taking the option to have a company car and there are plenty of arguments for and against. However, with the tax rates on company cars weighted towards favouring low emissions, there is a big case in favour of having an electric car as a company car.

When buying a car through your company, your are subject to tax based on the benefit in kind (BIK) which varies according to the price of the car and it’s emissions. The government currently (tax year 23/24) offers very favourable tax rates for fully electric vehicles purchased through a company car scheme and so this can be a cost effective way of buying or leasing a car. Read more here.