Accountants in Cock Street

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.

Compare accountants on the things that bite later: is the fee fixed and written down, what exactly is included, who does the work, how fast do they answer in January. Proximity to Cock Street stopped being the differentiator the day filings went electronic.

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.

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.

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.

Every year a wave of returns gets filed in the final days of January. It works, but it's the most expensive way to do it: no time to check for missed reliefs, and any tax due lands as one surprise. Sending your records early — even unsorted — is the single best gift you can give your January self.

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.

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.