Accountants in Chignall St James

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.

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.

The businesses that struggle with tax bills rarely have a tax problem; they have a timing problem. Knowing the bill in September instead of January — which filing early gives you for free — is the difference between planning and scrambling.

Self Assessment lateness is priced in stages: £100 immediately, daily £10 penalties after three months (up to £900), then percentage-based charges at six and twelve months — all separate from interest on unpaid tax. The curve is designed to reward filing sooner, whatever the state of your records.

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.

If you're a sole trader or landlord anywhere near the £50,000 income mark, Making Tax Digital will change your filing rhythm from 2026: four digital updates a year plus a final declaration. Clients who move their records to software early find the transition a non-event.

The first tax bill is the hardest because it can arrive with payments on account attached — up to 150% of the year's tax in one go. New businesses that save a quarter to a third of profits from day one never feel it.

Company deadlines run off your accounting year end, not the tax year: corporation tax is payable nine months and one day after year end, and the CT600 return is due twelve months after. Confusingly, the payment is due before the return — a sequencing quirk that catches new directors.