Accountants in Dinting, Higher

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.

HMRC requires records to be kept for at least five years after the filing deadline for the self-employed. Digital copies count. A cloud folder or app now beats a carrier bag of paper every time — for you and for any future enquiry.

Directors paying themselves a salary still need a PAYE scheme and RTI submissions, even in a one-person company. It's a five-minute monthly task with software — and a recurring penalty generator without 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.

Rental profits need reporting once they're more than trivial, and the rules differ for furnished holiday lets, rent-a-room and ordinary lets. Landlords are also in the first wave of Making Tax Digital — property income counts towards the £50,000 threshold.

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.

Online Self Assessment returns are due by 31 January, along with any balancing payment — and HMRC's £100 penalty applies the moment the deadline passes, even if you owe nothing. Most Dinting, Higher clients who come to us in January still file on time; the records just need to arrive before the last week.

If you contract through your own limited company, IR35 asks whether you'd be an employee without it. For medium and large clients, the status decision is theirs; for small clients, it's still yours — and getting it wrong in either direction costs money.