Accountants in Burngullow Common

People stay with the wrong accountant for years because switching feels disruptive. In practice the profession has a standard handover process — clearance letters, copies of prior returns and working papers — and the new firm drives it, not you.

Scam "HMRC" messages outnumber real ones — HMRC doesn't demand payment by gift card or threaten arrest by text. Real letters have reference numbers that we can verify directly with HMRC before anyone responds.

Timing disposals across tax years, using losses properly, and the spousal transfer rules can all legitimately reduce capital gains bills — but only before the sale. CGT planning after completion is just arithmetic.

Status under IR35 turns on the reality of the engagement: control, substitution, mutuality of obligation. Contracts matter, but working practices matter more. A written status assessment for each engagement is cheap insurance.

Since Section 24, individual landlords can't deduct mortgage interest as an expense — it's a 20% tax credit instead, which pushes some higher-rate landlords into surprising bills. Whether to hold property personally or through a company is now a genuine question with genuine trade-offs.

Good records aren't about neatness — they're about money: claims you can evidence, VAT you can reclaim, and an accountant who spends billable time on advice rather than sorting. Bank feeds plus a receipts app gets most small businesses to "tidy" in minutes a week.

The trading allowance means up to £1,000 of gross side income per year can be tax-free with no return needed. Above that, registration and reporting kick in — and platforms now report seller data to HMRC, so "under the radar" isn't a strategy any more.

Every tax bill is predictable months in advance — which makes tax the most plannable cost a business has. A separate tax savings account, fed a fixed percentage of every sale, converts January from a crisis into a transfer.