Same HMRC. A different year.

What catches people out

• Mortgage interest on a residential let is a 20% tax reducer, not an expense, which can push a landlord into a higher band.
• Tax on a sold UK home or let has to be reported and paid within 60 days of completion, not next January.
• The furnished holiday lettings rules ended in April 2025, so short lets are now taxed like any other let.
• Making Tax Digital counts gross rent together with any self employed income: over £50,000 now, £30,000 from April 2027, £20,000 from April 2028.
• From April 2027 rental profit gets its own rates of 22%, 42% and 47%.
• Joint owners each report their own share on their own return.

What we do

• The property pages of your self assessment return
• Digital records and the quarterly Making Tax Digital updates
• Capital gains computations and the 60 day return
• Accounts and corporation tax for property companies
• A straight answer on whether holding property in a company actually helps you

What catches people out

• Payments on account fall on 31 January and 31 July. The first year hurts, because this year's balance and half of next year's are due on the same day.
• Making Tax Digital is tested on turnover before expenses, with any gross rent added: over £50,000 now, £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028.
• Allowable expenses are wider than most people claim: tools, mileage, working from home, phone and training.
• VAT registration is compulsory once turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling twelve months.
• IR35 applies when you work through your own company. For a medium or large client, the client decides your status.
• Sole trader or limited company depends on profit, on what you need to draw, and on how much admin you will tolerate.

What we do

• Your self assessment return, with every relief checked
• Bookkeeping, with receipts captured by app or email
• Quarterly Making Tax Digital updates if they apply to you
• CIS deductions reclaimed the week the tax year opens
• Both sets of numbers run before you decide on a company, at no cost

What catches people out

• Income arrives from many places, in lumps and often in other currencies, so records have to follow the statements rather than the bank.
• Products given in return for promotion are generally taxable income at their value.
• Royalties from abroad often arrive with foreign tax already taken off. A tax treaty usually gives relief, if it is claimed.
• Writers, composers and artists whose profit comes from selling or licensing their own works can average two consecutive years when one year is less than 75% of the other. It does not cover fees for performing, acting or crew work.
• Touring costs are allowable when they belong to the tour; the personal part has to be separated.
• Production companies have their own creative industry reliefs.

What we do

• Your self assessment return, with averaging considered where it applies
• Bookkeeping across platforms, agents and currencies
• VAT returns, including income from overseas platforms
• Company accounts and tax for production companies

What catches people out

• Corporation tax is 19% on profit up to £50,000 and 25% over £250,000, with an effective 26.5% on each pound in between. Those limits are shared between associated companies, and a close investment holding company pays 25% on everything.
• A dividend can only come out of profits the company actually has. One paid without them is unlawful and can be reclassified.
• A director's loan still outstanding nine months after the year end costs the company a 35.75% charge on loans made from 6 April 2026. The company can claim it back after the loan is repaid, but not until nine months after the end of the accounting period in which it was repaid.
• Employer National Insurance is 15% above £5,000. The employment allowance takes up to £10,500 off that bill, but a company whose only employee paid above £5,000 is a director cannot claim it, which is why the best director salary differs from one company to the next.
• Directors and people with significant control now have to verify their identity with Companies House.
• From April 2028 accounts go through software only and small companies file a profit and loss account for the first time.

What we do

• Year end accounts and the CT600, filed together
• Salary and dividends planned for your whole income, revisited when the rates move
• Payroll, P11D and the director loan account kept straight
• Confirmation statement, officer changes and identity verification
• Monthly bookkeeping and VAT returns

What catches people out

• Unbilled work at the year end usually has to be counted as income as the work is done, at the amount you expect to bill for it and not at cost. Only where the right to be paid has not yet arisen, such as a contingent fee, is it carried as work in progress at the lower of cost and what it will fetch. Either way it moves profit and tax from one year to the next.
• Retainers and stage invoices paid in advance are deferred income, not profit, until the work is done.
• A firm can be profitable and still short of cash, so who owes you and for how long matters as much as the profit figure.
• LLP members on a fixed reward, with little say and little capital at risk, can be taxed as employees under the salaried member rules.
• Services sold to business customers overseas are usually outside the scope of UK VAT, if the evidence is kept.

What we do

• Year end accounts with unbilled work and work in progress valued properly
• Partnership, LLP and company tax returns
• VAT returns, including overseas clients
• Payroll, and salary and dividend planning for directors
• Management figures through the year

What catches people out

• An annual subscription paid up front is earned month by month. The unearned part sits in the accounts as deferred income, not as profit.
• Payouts from Stripe, Paddle and the app stores arrive net of fees, so sales have to be rebuilt from the gross figures.
• Selling to customers abroad turns on where the customer is and whether it is a business. Sales to EU consumers can mean registering under an EU scheme such as the One Stop Shop.
• Research and development relief stands or falls on records kept at the time of what was technically uncertain and what it cost.
• Investors using SEIS or EIS expect advance assurance before they invest and a compliance statement after.
• Contractors working through their own companies bring IR35 with them.

What we do

• Bookkeeping with payment platform payouts reconciled
• Year end accounts with subscription income spread correctly
• Corporation tax, payroll and VAT
• Records kept so an R&D claim or an investor scheme stands up
• Monthly management figures for you and your investors

What catches people out

• A partnership pays no tax itself. It files one return, the SA800, and each partner's share then goes on their own return.
• Profit shares, partner salaries, interest on capital and drawings are different things and each needs recording separately.
• A partner joining or leaving part way through the year means the year's profit has to be split by date.
• An LLP is a body corporate: it files accounts and a confirmation statement at Companies House, in public.
• A written agreement is not a legal requirement, but it is what settles an argument about shares and exits.
• An LLP's accounts are due at Companies House nine months after its year end, which usually falls before the 31 January tax deadline. A partnership with a company as a member can have a different return date, counted from its accounting date.

What we do

• The partnership return and the statement for each partner
• Each partner's self assessment return from the same figures
• Capital and current accounts reconciled every year
• LLP accounts and Companies House filings
• VAT and payroll where the partnership has staff

What catches people out

• CIS deductions are 20% for a registered subcontractor and 30% for an unregistered one, taken from labour and not from materials.
• A contractor must verify each subcontractor and file a CIS return every month by the 19th. A late return starts at a £100 penalty.
• Subcontractors get their deductions back through self assessment; companies set them against their PAYE bill.
• The reverse charge moves the VAT on most construction services to the customer, but only where the customer is registered for both VAT and CIS and is selling the work on. It does not apply to work for homeowners, for a business that is not in CIS, or for an end user who has confirmed that in writing.
• Gross payment status, where nothing is deducted, needs a clean compliance record and enough turnover.

What we do

• Monthly CIS returns, verification and deduction statements
• CIS refunds claimed as soon as the tax year opens
• Invoices set up correctly for the reverse charge
• Payroll for employed staff alongside the subcontractors
• Gross payment status applications

What catches people out

• Stock and work in progress are valued at each stage: materials, labour and a fair share of production overheads.
• Companies get full expensing, a 100% first year deduction on most new main rate plant. The annual investment allowance of £1 million covers most other businesses, and a 40% first year allowance has applied since 1 January 2026.
• The main pool writing down allowance fell from 18% to 14% in April 2026, so the timing of a purchase matters more than it did.
• Exports are zero rated only if the shipping and customs evidence is kept, for six years.
• Machinery on hire purchase or lease is accounted for differently from machinery bought outright.

What we do

• Year end accounts with stock and work in progress valued properly
• Corporation tax with every capital allowance claimed
• Management accounts through the year
• VAT returns, including imports and exports
• Payroll for shifts, overtime and premiums

What catches people out

• Marketplaces pay out after their fees, refunds and advertising. Turnover, and VAT, are measured on sales before the fees and advertising come off, not on what lands in the bank.
• The £90,000 VAT threshold is tested on those gross sales over any rolling twelve months.
• Stock at the year end is valued at the lower of cost and what it will sell for. Without a stock figure the profit is a guess.
• Postponed VAT accounting lets an importer account for import VAT on the return instead of paying it at the border.
• Selling to consumers in the EU brings EU VAT schemes into play.

What we do

• Bookkeeping with marketplace and card payouts reconciled to gross sales
• VAT registration and returns
• Stock and margin figures through the year
• Year end accounts and the tax return
• Payroll for shop staff

What catches people out

• Food eaten in is standard rated. Hot takeaway food is standard rated too, while most cold takeaway food is zero rated, so the till has to tell them apart.
• Since 1 October 2024 every tip has to reach the staff in full. Tips shared out through an independent tronc are free of National Insurance.
• Weekly pay runs with changing hours, holiday pay and a high turnover of staff make payroll the biggest admin job in the business.
• Tills and card machines are best reconciled daily, because a week of differences is hard to unpick.
• Food and staff cost as a share of sales is the figure that shows trouble first.

What we do

• Bookkeeping with till and card takings reconciled
• VAT returns with the mixed rates handled
• Weekly or monthly payroll, including tips and tronc
• Management figures through the year
• Year end accounts and tax

What catches people out

• Someone renting a chair is genuinely self employed only if they set their own prices and hours, bring their own clients and use their own products. Otherwise HMRC can treat them as staff.
• Product sales count towards the £90,000 VAT threshold together with the services, so a busy salon reaches it sooner than expected.
• Tips belong to the staff and have to reach them in full.
• Self employed therapists come into Making Tax Digital on the same thresholds as everyone else.
• Chairs, equipment and much of a fit out (wiring, lighting, plumbing, basins, furniture) usually qualify for the annual investment allowance. Building work such as walls, floors, doors and the shopfront does not.

What we do

• Bookkeeping, with card and till takings reconciled
• Payroll and tips for employed staff
• VAT registration and returns
• Self assessment for self employed stylists and therapists
• Advice on when a company starts to pay

What catches people out

• Money given for a purpose has to be tracked separately: restricted, unrestricted and endowment funds each tell their own story in the accounts.
• Gift Aid adds 25p to every pound given by a UK taxpayer, provided there is a valid declaration behind it.
• For financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026 an audit is needed when income passes £1.5 million, or when assets pass £5 million with income over £500,000. Below that, income over £40,000 usually means an independent examination. Earlier years keep the old limits of £1 million, £3.26 million with £250,000, and £25,000. These are the England and Wales limits.
• A new Charities SORP applies to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026.
• Trading that is not part of the charitable purpose may need to sit in a trading subsidiary once it outgrows the small trading exemption.

What we do

• Bookkeeping kept fund by fund
• Gift Aid claims and the declarations behind them
• Payroll for charities with staff
• Accounts and the trustees' annual report prepared under the SORP, ready for your independent examiner or auditor
• Charity Commission annual return and Companies House filings

What catches people out

• Medical care by a registered professional is exempt from VAT. Cosmetic work and retail sales are not, and once those pass £90,000 the practice is partly exempt.
• A locum can be employed, self employed and working through a company in the same year, and each is taxed differently.
• Dental associates are usually self employed, but it is the working arrangement that decides it, not the label on the contract.
• NHS pension growth can create an annual allowance charge, and it needs looking at before the tax year ends rather than after.
• Care providers have to get sleep in shifts and the minimum wage right in every pay run.

What we do

• Self assessment for locums and associates
• Accounts and tax for practices and consultant companies
• Payroll, including shift patterns
• VAT returns where part of the income is taxable
• Bookkeeping kept monthly