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In Ancient Rome, there were people specially “trained” to practice a form of prophecy called haruspicy.  This involved inspecting animal innards to make predictions.  And it wasn’t just the Romans that thought this was a good idea, there are accounts of this practice continuing...

So wrote William Shakespeare over 400 years ago but this could easily have been said by HMRC in 2020. One of the most frequent question we are asked is when a tax bill needs to be paid.  It is important to get right as the fines for late payment can be eye watering. A few of the...

If you are a sole trader or a partnership, the money in your business bank account belongs to you.  Of course, you still have people that you owe money to – like HMRC and your suppliers, who will expect you to pay them first.  If you’re in a partnership, you might want to square...

One of my pet peeves is when people use the term self-employed to describe the status of people who run their own limited company.  It leads to confusion in terms of how income is taxed and, when considering eligibility for the COVID19 relief schemes, has caused lots of arguments...

When you buy assets and keep them for use in your business, you don’t necessarily get tax relief immediately.  In your accounts, these are recognised in the balance sheet as fixed assets analysed by asset type e.g. motor vehicles.  This is in contrast to when you purchase a...

PAYE tax codes are not easy to understand and yet HMRC considers it the responsibility of individual taxpayers to check that their own code is right and to inform HMRC if it is not. In our experience, it is extremely hit and miss whether taxpayers even receive a copy of their...

Making Tax Digital – Income Tax “Making Tax Digital is a key part of the government’s plans to make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right and keep on top of their affairs.”  Discuss. It sounds like an exam question for the most boring subject of all...

VAT is not for the fainthearted.  I was once asked during a networking meeting at what point should you have an accountant.  Of course I think that all but the smallest of businesses should have one.  Firstly because you should actually be able to earn more than you might save in...

With effect from 6th April 2017, new rules came into force regarding how tax is calculated on your property income profits.  If you have a furnished holiday let or run your property business through a limited company, these rules won’t apply to you.  If you are an...