Accountants in Brondesbury

The tax-free dividend allowance is down to £500, so almost any director taking dividends now pays some dividend tax — and needs a Self Assessment return to report it. The classic small-salary-plus-dividends strategy still works; it just needs actual planning rather than folklore.

Miss 31 January and the £100 fine is automatic; three months later daily penalties start. If you're behind on a return, the maths almost always favours filing quickly over waiting — penalties grow on a timetable, and HMRC charges interest either way.

Some businesses register for VAT before they must — reclaiming input VAT can be worth it if your customers are VAT-registered themselves. Others should stay below deliberately. It's a real decision with real numbers, not a formality.

If your last Self Assessment bill was over £1,000, HMRC usually asks for next year's tax in advance — half on 31 January, half on 31 July. It's the number-one cause of "why is my bill double?" calls, and it's manageable: if your income has dropped, the payments can be reduced with a claim.

HMRC runs nudge-letter campaigns to crypto holders based on exchange data. If there are undeclared gains in past years, a voluntary disclosure is dramatically cheaper than waiting for the letter — penalties are scaled to cooperation.

Compliance checks are usually specific: one return, one figure, one question. Answered promptly and with evidence, most close quickly. The expensive enquiries are the ones that started as unanswered letters.

Limited companies in CIS reclaim differently to sole traders — through payroll or the company tax return rather than Self Assessment. Plenty of construction companies sit on refundable deductions without realising; a quick review of the CIS position often pays for itself immediately.

UK residential property sales have their own regime: report and pay within 60 days of completion, separately from Self Assessment. Other gains report annually. Mixing up the two timetables is a common and expensive mistake.