Tax:
Compliance

Tax compliance could be regarded as the "form filling" function of the Department, but in reality it is much more than this. Most of our clients require our tax compliance service, whether this is personal, business or corporate.

Personal

This is more than filling in tax returns. Our normal annual personal tax compliance service includes:

The completion and submission to the Inland Revenue of Self Assessment tax returns and supporting schedules.

Calculation of tax liabilities.

Advising of tax payments and due dates, including balancing payments or repayments and any interim payments.

Checking Self Assessment statements of account.

Checking PAYE notices of coding.

Dealing with minor queries arising during the period including any dialogue required with the Inland Revenue.

We deal with other personal tax compliance as the need arises, including dealing with national insurance contribution matters (registration, deferment, over- or underpayments), inheritance tax reporting and (as part of the annual personal tax compliance service) calculating capital gains tax liabilities.

Our annual service goes beyond filling in the forms and we critically review tax returns to see if they "look right" based on what we know of our clients. Have you sent us all the information you sent last year, or have you missed one bank account? We cannot take away from you the ultimate responsibility for preparing a correct return, but by taking this extra care we might just help to prevent that tax enquiry!

Business

A business' accounts normally require adjusting for tax purposes to arrive at a taxable profit (or loss) rather than the accounts profit (or loss), for example to disallow depreciation and replace it with capital allowances, or to disallow entertaining expenses. These adjustments are made on a tax computation at the time the accounts are prepared. The adjusted figure(s) are then used to prepare personal, partnership or corporate tax returns.

We provide tax compliance to businesses by assisting with end of year PAYE returns including forms P35 (whether in support of our Payroll Department or otherwise) and forms P11D (which require details of expenses and benefits to be reported to the Inland Revenue by 6 July each year).

We also provide businesses with VAT support. We can assist you with the preparation of your VAT returns, or prepare them from the information you provide, or advise on the VAT treatment of sales or costs.

Corporate

Corporate tax compliance is a combination of the attributes of personal tax compliance and business tax compliance.

Most companies will need to adjust their accounts profit to take account of disallowable expenditure, for example, and prepare a computation of taxable profits, as with business tax compliance. All companies need to prepare tax returns (form CT600) for each accounting period and these tax returns are based on the business tax computations. A company's accounting period for tax purposes is not necessarily the same as the period for which it prepares accounts. For example, an accounting period cannot exceed 12 months. There are more complex provisions determining the cessation, or commencement, of accounting periods in defined circumstances.

We help our corporate clients meet their statutory tax obligations in many ways:

We prepare tax computations adjusting a company's accounts for tax purposes.

We preparing corporation tax return form(s) CT600 for each accounting period.

We monitor filing deadlines for company tax returns, help our clients submit their returns on time, and making all appropriate tax claims on time.

We advise clients of their corporation tax payments, typically falling due 9 months after the end of an accounting period (and 3 months before the tax return has to be filed).

We monitor and compute other company tax liabilities, for example liabilities to corporation tax as a result of making loans to participators (most commonly as overdrawn directors' loan accounts).

For larger companies, we advise on the payment of quarterly instalments of corporation tax and in some cases assist them with their estimates of profits so that they may make accurate payments. Quite often some tax planning is needed at the compliance stage. There may be a choice of claims or

elections to be made. The way in which certain reliefs are claimed, particularly in a group of companies, may affect the tax liability - in that year or in future years. We do not just fill in forms; we constantly think of ways to help our clients pay less tax.

For our many owner-managed companies, we consider the optimum tax position of both the company and its owners. We ensure our personal tax compliance is consistent with decisions taken for corporation tax compliance.