Accountants in Lambourn Woodlands

Ask any prospective accountant two questions: "what's included in the fee?" and "what costs extra?" The quality of those two answers predicts the whole relationship.

Selling a rental property triggers capital gains tax with a tight reporting window — UK residential sales must be reported and the tax paid within 60 days of completion. It's one of the easiest deadlines in the whole system to miss, and one of the most penalised.

Plenty of people incorporate too early because it "sounds established", then pay for accounts, confirmation statements and payroll they didn't need. The switch pays for itself at the right profit level — the trick is knowing yours.

Crypto traders rack up hundreds of taxable events without noticing, because every swap counts as a disposal. Specialist software plus the pooling rules turns the mess into a number; guessing does not.

Changing accountant mid-year is routine: you authorise the new firm, we write a professional clearance letter to the old one, records transfer, and HMRC authorisation moves online. Clients are usually surprised the whole thing needs almost nothing from them.

The capital gains annual exempt amount has shrunk to £3,000, which pulls far more ordinary disposals — shares, crypto, second properties — into reporting territory. Gains that once fell under the allowance now need a return, even when the tax due is modest.

Most self-employed people under-claim. Use of home, mileage at HMRC's approved rates, phone and broadband apportionment, trade subscriptions, training that updates existing skills — legitimate deductions left on the table add up to real tax overpaid year after year.

The businesses that find January easy are the ones whose bookkeeping happened all year — automatically. Modern software matches bank transactions, files receipts photographed on a phone, and leaves nothing to reconstruct from memory in the new year.