Accountants in Richings Park

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.

New companies often have a long first accounting period, which can mean two corporation tax returns for one set of accounts. It's normal, but it's exactly the kind of thing that's cheaper to get right first time than to unpick.

Subcontractors under the Construction Industry Scheme have 20% deducted at source — often more than their final tax bill once expenses and the personal allowance are counted. That's why CIS refunds are so common: the average claim is well into four figures, but only if the deduction statements are all gathered.

If a return is late because HMRC asked for one you don't actually need, it can sometimes be withdrawn entirely — penalties included. And where there's a genuine reasonable excuse, appeals succeed more often than people expect. The wrong move is ignoring the letters.

Register with HMRC by the 5 October after your first tax year of trading, open a separate business account, and put a fixed slice of every payment aside for tax. Do those three things and your first January will be boring — the good kind.

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.

Disposing of crypto — selling, swapping one coin for another, spending it — is a capital gains event, and staking or mining income is usually income. Exchanges share data with HMRC, so the tax position exists whether or not it's been calculated.

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.