Accountants in Runcorn

VAT registration becomes compulsory once your taxable turnover in any rolling 12 months passes £90,000 — and "rolling" is the word that catches people, because it's not your accounting year. Businesses in Runcorn growing towards that line should be watching it monthly.

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.

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.

A good accountant should be able to tell you, in plain English, what they'll do, when, and for exactly how much. Vagueness on any of the three is the tell. Everything else — size of firm, fancy office, distance from Runcorn — is decoration.

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.

From April 2026, self-employed people and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 move onto Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: digital records and quarterly updates to HMRC, not one annual return. The year before is the right time to get bookkeeping into shape.

HMRC receives data directly from online platforms about sellers' income. If a side hustle has grown past the £1,000 trading allowance, coming forward first is always cheaper than being written to — penalties scale with how the disclosure starts.

Dividends can only be paid from accumulated profits, and paperwork matters: board minutes and dividend vouchers, dated correctly. "Illegal dividends" isn't dramatic language — overdrawn payments can be reclassified, with tax consequences, if the profits weren't there.