Simpson and Willis provide services leading up to an audit. The technical jargon can be intimidating and difficult to understand; we can liaise with your auditors and produce annual reports where tangible assets can be derived from a good financial position.
Every UK
business is required to complete accounts on an annual basis. These accounts are
then used to calculate the amount of tax payable, based on profits and other
forms of income.
These accounts
are also important from an individual’s perspective. Not only do they provide
you with information about the profitability and stability of your business,
they can also help when
raising finance,
both personally and for the business.
To prepare
accounts, it is important that you have adequate records detailing the
transactions your business makes. These include invoices, statements, books of
prime entry and so forth. Without these records, this becomes extremely
difficult, and failure to keep adequate records can result in fines being
imposed.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and other government bodies have certain powers to
ensure that tax and
VAT
is collected correctly. Without these records to review, these organisations can
raise 'assessments'. When you are assessed for profits, or for
VAT
liabilities, it is up to you to prove these assessments wrong. Without records,
this is virtually impossible.
There is a need to keep records for lengthy periods, usually in excess of six
years. This is because HMRC can request information to prove your accounting
calculations are correct.
What Should I Keep?
To put it
simply, you should keep everything! Any records that you produce (i.e. Cash
books, Day Books etc.) should have paperwork that backs up the information
contained therein. Examples include Invoices, Delivery Notes, Bank Statements,
Diaries and so on. Because of the variation of business styles, it is difficult
to create a full list, and as such you should contact your accountant for
further information.
It is equally
important that any records produced are accurate and complete. Providing
incomplete records (where certain information is missing) can be problematic and
often exasperate situations when completing accurate accounts, or when dealing
with HMRC enquiries.
It is in your business's best interest to keep your records accurate and timely.
Doing so improves your business's chances of success, as you will be able to
monitor your business more closely, and make adjustments and decisions where and
when required.
Financial accounts
Every UK business is required to complete accounts on an annual basis. These accounts are then used to calculate the amount of tax payable, based on profits and other forms of income
Tax planning
Building and retaining wealth is a key focus for most owner managers. Innovative tax planning is about selecting the most effective route to achieve both business and personal objectives.
It is
important to consider the structure of your affairs to minimise the impact of
taxation on your income or profits.
Simpson and Willis provide pro-active solutions that are in accordance with
client requirements, but above all assist and complement strategies that achieve
business and personal objectives.
We recognise that each case will have its own unique implications that will need
special consideration so that an appropriate plan can be put together.
How do we achieve this?
In short by working closely with clients and understanding their short and long term objectives, accommodating the flexibility they require for changing circumstances and in particular ensuring that structures we build can accommodate the unforeseen events that lie ahead. We ensure that clients understand the issues and the choices they face and that appropriate decisions are made within the time-scales required.
Business Tax Planning
Planning the appropriate action for the following situations requires a great deal of experience and knowledge, and includes:
Corporation tax
Careful planning of business activities can significantly reduce the corporation tax bill and help to increase retained profits for many UK businesses.
Careful
planning of business activities can significantly reduce the corporation tax
bill and thus increase retained profits for many UK businesses. By beginning a
structured planning scheme, you can help to ensure that the maximum available
profits stay in your company, and reduce the chance of overpaying Corporation
Tax to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Many companies
are members of groups for trading purposes, but before setting up such a
structure, careful consideration should be given to the potential impact this
will have on tax. With differing corporation tax rates, group structures make
this task complex, as each group member will require individual advice and the
overall tax impact will require detailed reviewing before committing to any such
structure.
Other tax
saving opportunities arise when you are considering selling your business.
Depending upon the nature of the sale, ensuring the proper company structure
before sale can reduce the tax charge considerably. So if you are contemplating
a sale, please seek professional advice on whether a reorganisation of your
company would be beneficial.
Even with
smaller companies, not all shareholders will have the same needs when it comes
to extracting value from their company. It is therefore important to structure
the company's share capital in the best way and to ensure that tax efficient
remuneration packages are designed for the owners.
Income Tax
Current UK Income Tax is chargeable against most earned income, including PAYE earnings, dividends, interest etc.
Current UK
Income Tax is chargeable against most earned income, including PAYE earnings,
dividends, interest and so forth. There are various rates at which Income Tax is
charged, ranging from 20% through to 40%.
The government provides every UK taxpayer with a personal allowance of £6,470
per year. All income earned or received up to this allowance should not attract
any Income Tax. If you think you have paid income tax whilst below this limit,
we recommend that you contact to your local Simpson and Willis consultant.
It is important
that you maximise the reliefs and benefits available to you, which is where
Simpson and Willis can help. We can provide you with advice and services to meet
your individual requirements, from arranging completion of your tax return, to
maximising your allowances and reliefs for your income and earnings.
This includes:
This includes:
Increasingly there is flexibility within HM Revenue & Customs that offers many businesses the opportunity to set up warehouse regimes to defer customs duties and VAT on imports. Our specialists can advise on such opportunities, in conjunction with other reliefs, to help maximise cash flow benefits.
This service
is of great benefit to businesses that seek to limit their time spent on the
administrative burden of VAT compliance. It can be beneficial to international
businesses that require UK VAT registration and where a full understanding of UK
legislation may not be present in-house. As well as advising on procedures,
clients frequently
outsource their VAT returns to us.
We can
assist you in fighting unjustified VAT assessments, often achieving recovery of
professional costs from Customs. In most cases we can negotiate acceptable
settlements.
As one of the most complex areas of VAT, we can provide effective planning advice and assist partially exempt businesses maximise VAT recovery, whilst at the same time limiting costs.
Because of the complexity of tax, we can offer you reassurance that the correct VAT rate is being applied to sales. We can also help to obtain rulings from HMRC on VAT liabilities.
Our commercial approach helps to structure transactions so that VAT does not needlessly apply. With this focus we are able to structure additional efficiencies and cost savings in many cases. Our experience of the rules applicable to specialist bodies (e.g. central government and local authorities) means that we can often secure advantages for private sector businesses trading with such bodies. We can also optimise the VAT position on land and property deals, working closely with other third parties.
Our extensive experience of advising charities and not-for-profit organisations ensures that, in many cases we can obtain VAT advantages simply by exploiting existing reliefs to the full. We also provide a more focused VAT planning service in connection with property matters.