What is included
A tax return is a report on decisions already made. The useful work happens before 5 April, not in January.
The self assessment return, prepared and filed
The main return plus whichever supplementary pages apply: employment, self employment, partnership, property, capital gains, foreign income, pensions and residence.
Salary and dividend planning
Deciding what to take from the company, in what form and in which tax year, with the company's position and your own considered together rather than separately.
Rental income and property
Property pages prepared properly, including finance cost restrictions, allowable expenditure, repairs against improvements, and jointly held property.
Capital gains
Share disposals, second properties and business sales calculated with the reliefs and elections that apply, and reported on the right form within the right window.
Pension contributions reviewed
Personal and employer contributions, unused allowance brought forward from earlier years, and the interaction with your income level, all checked before the year end.
Payments on account explained
What you owe, when, and why HMRC is asking for money towards next year as well as this one. We tell you whether reducing them is sensible or a trap.
A liability forecast well before January
You get the figure in good time, so the payment is planned rather than discovered. This is the single most appreciated part of the service.
HMRC correspondence and enquiries
We are your agent. Statements, coding notices and enquiries come to us and get dealt with.
Who this is for
Not everyone needs a tax return. The people below almost always do, and in an owner managed business the company return and the personal return are two halves of the same decision.
Company directors and shareholders
Where the salary, dividend, pension and loan account decisions of the company land on your own return. This is included in Core.
Landlords
One property or twenty, held personally or jointly. Property is where the rules have changed most in the last decade and where old habits cost money.
The self employed and partners
Sole traders and partnerships, where the accounts and the return are prepared together and the basis period rules matter.
People with income HMRC does not see
Dividends from elsewhere, investment income, foreign income, crypto disposals, or income that has crossed a threshold that pulls you into self assessment.
We do not give regulated investment advice, and we will not tell you which pension or fund to buy. We work alongside your financial adviser on the tax consequences, which is a different question and the one we are qualified to answer.
How it works
We do not wait for January. The work is spread deliberately so that the deadline is never the first time anyone looks at it.
- 01
Before 5 April
A review of the year while something can still be done about it: dividend timing, pension contributions, use of allowances between spouses, and any disposal that would sit better in the next tax year.
- 02
After the tax year ends
We ask for what we need, once, in a list. For directors of companies we already act for, most of it is already in our hands.
- 03
Preparation over the summer
Returns are prepared through the summer and autumn, not in the last fortnight. A return prepared in September is a better return than one prepared on 30 January.
- 04
You get the figure early
The draft return, the tax due, the payment dates and any payments on account, months before the money is needed.
- 05
Approval and filing
You approve the return, we file it online with HMRC, and you get confirmation. The declaration is yours, so nothing goes without you seeing it.
- 06
Reminders before each payment date
Before 31 January and before 31 July, with the figure and the reference, so nothing is missed and nothing accrues interest.
