Tax Saving Tips For Your Business

Delving into taxes when it concerns your business can always be a daunting time, and it is not always the most exciting part. However, it always needs to be dealt with at some point. To help you get started, we have gathered a few little tips to guide you on your way.

In this day and age, dealing with taxes can be complex. And whether your business is just starting out, or has been around for a few years, it can always be tricky to establish what is available to you, what you are entitled to, and your financial affairs. Before we get started if you are looking for some in-depth tax-saving tips from online accountants, then have a look at our range of free resources from special tax reports, tax calculators, and tax helpsheets. We can even email these directly to you (promise we won’t spam you).

1. Meet Deadlines and Stay Organised

One of the first and most important tips we can give you is to always meet your deadlines. Organisation is essential to any workplace. Any delayed filing with Companies House paperwork (confirmation statement), HMRC, FCA, and other regulatory accounts, can result in fines and other consequences. For a business, this can have devastating impacts as can affect your credit rating and banking commitments.

There are many documents you need to keep organised when you are running a business and keeping organised will reduce any hassle. It is also a great idea to map out future dates you need to be aware of. For instance:

• Tax year dates – including any potential changes
• Self assessment tax return deadlines
• Tax registration deadlines
• Tax payment and filing deadlines
• Aware of any penalties for late payments
• Any COVID extensions

Furthermore, make sure you always keep a copy of your documents, such as invoices and receipts in a safe place. According to HMRC, these business records need to be kept for six years, so keep them secure and protected. Also, records and receipts are needed from HMRC to expense claims or input VAT amounts, so make sure your business keeps proper supporting records.

2. Claim Anything You Are Entitled To

Make sure you claim anything you are entitled to such as ‘Capital Allowances’ to help with your business rates. Our friendly group of online accountants can talk you through this. Capital allowances can be claimed against taxable profit, meaning you can receive a reduction in capital expenditure such as business equipment. For example, there are:

• Annual Investment Allowance (AIA)

AIA is available for British businesses, and is a form of tax relief designated for the purchase of business equipment. AIA applies to businesses of any size, and allows an immediate deduction against profits for capital expenditure up to a certain limit. Most businesses can claim on a portion of expenditure to most types of plant and machinery (except cars).

• Enhanced Capital Allowances (ECAs)

ECAs encourage business to invest in efficient and environmentally friendly equipment. This scheme allows you to claim 100% first-year allowances such as tax relief in efficient technologies. This will not only reduce investment costs, but your environmental impact. All in all, this will improve your cash flow and the time it takes to pay back your investment. However keep in mind, this can only be claimed for new plant and machinery, not second-hand or used.

Make sure you do some research to find out exactly what you are entitled to. There are multiple options out there that will benefit you and your business, to which you are 100% entitled to.

3. Working From Home?

If you are working from home, or a self-employed business owner you may be able to claim tax relief for:

• Gas and electricity
• Metered water
• Business phone call and dial-up internet access

Furthermore, you can claim a fixed nominal sum of £6 a week with no evidence of your extra costs. There can be many generous tax savings for those of you who work from home. So make sure you research and are aware of them.

4. Be Aware of Illegal Dividends

Dividends are payments for shareholders, directors, or investors for buying the company’s shares or stocks. Any company can pay dividends from retained profits after paying corporation tax and have met all liabilities. However, be aware of illegal dividends, or ‘Ultra Vires’. This can occur after declaring expenses based on bank balance rather than profits, yet dividends should only be paid from profits. Unfortunately, this is not unusual and can result in an overpayment and is costly to sort out at a later date.

5. Talk To Us

Of course there is a lot of information out there which is time consuming, as well as being tricky to navigate. Here at CloudBook Online Accountants, we want to make your life easier. We will work with you from the start to the very end of the year and will assist and support you every step of the way. Whether you are a UK based sole trader, small or medium business owner or property investor. We will help get your finances on track and help you stay organised with an easily reachable, friendly and qualified online accountant.

So, we hope you have discovered some new information about tax and your business. Get in contact with us if you have any questions, or are interested in any services from our online accountants.