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Accountancy, finance, and business knowledge you can COUNT on.
So much information out there is complex and confusing – so we’ve set out to change that with helpful, clear resources you can trust.
From eBooks to blogs, checklists to guides, our expert team have pulled together explanations, (mostly!) jargon-free advice, and handy articles to help you prosper.
UPDATED
COMPANIES
HOUSE FEES
WHAT EXPENSES
CAN I CLAIM IF I’M
SELF EMPLOYED?
THINKING OF CHANGING
ACCOUNTANT, BUT DON’T
KNOW WHERE TO START?
CHANGES TO
THE BASIS
PERIOD
UPDATED COMPANIES HOUSE FEES
What’s Changing
Companies House are currently undergoing a significant reform and as part of this have been granted new powers to query and reject information, to improve the quality of data that is held on the register, as well as affording users’ greater protections over their personal data.
To finance the administration costs associated with implementing and enforcing these changes, Companies House have reviewed and increased their pricing structure as of the 1st of May.
How Will This Affect Me?
The increases have been significant across all the services offered by Companies House and a full list of all the increases can be found below.
Changes to Companies House fees – Changes to UK company law
From the 1st of May the new fees will take effect and annual compliance such as the filing of confirmation statements will become more expensive.
Who Will This Affect?
Individuals wishing to incorporate a new limited company or businesses that are already incorporated and required to submit annual confirmation statements or other Companies House documents will be affected by these changes.
COUNT Are Here to Help!
If you need any assistance in relation to Companies House, whether you are starting up a new company or simply staying compliant on an annual basis COUNT are here to assist along the way. If you have any queries please contact any member of the team.
WHAT EXPENSES CAN I CLAIM IF I’M SELF EMPLOYED?
There are a variety of expenses you can claim for if you’re self-employed – if they are ‘wholly and exclusively’ for business use. Expenses are deducted from sales to work out your taxable profit (what you get taxed on at the end of the year).
Office costs
• Phone, mobile, fax (are these still a thing?!) and internet bills
• Postage
• Stationery
• Printing
• Printer ink and cartridges
• Computer software
Costs for your business’ premises
• Rent
• Business and water rates
• Utility bills
• Property insurance
• Security
• Use your home as an office
Travel costs
• Vehicle insurance
• Vehicle repairs
• Fuel/mileage
• Parking
• Hire charges
• Train, bus, air and taxi fees
• Hotel rooms
Clothing expenses
• Uniforms
• Protective clothing needed for your work
• Costumes for actors/entertainers
Staff costs
• Wages
• Pensions
• Agency fees
• Subcontractors
Things you buy to sell on e.g. stock, raw materials or direct costs from producing goods
Financial costs
• Bank charges
• Interest
• Operating lease payments
• Legal and professional costs for hiring of accountants, solicitors, architects and surveyors
Advertising or marketing
• Advertising in newspapers/directories/Facebook/online
• Website costs
• Business cards
Training courses
A full list of the above can be found on HMRC’s website using the following link
Please note, allowable expenses do not include any drawings (money) you take from the business or loan repayments! These are shown on the balance sheet of the year end accounts and do not affect the taxable profit.
You may also be eligible to claim capital allowances on assets that you have for your business. For example, equipment, machinery or business vehicles.
Any items that have an element of personal use will need an adjustment to the overall expense.
THINKING OF CHANGING ACCOUNTANT, BUT DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START?
We firmly believe at COUNT that you shouldn’t change your Accountant unless you’re unhappy. There are a lot of good Accountants out there and we’d be wrong to tell you to change just for the sake of it.
However, we’re often asked what the process is for changing Accountants when meeting new businesses, so we thought we’d write just the article outlining the process!
Step 1 – Meet COUNT
We’ll talk through exactly what you need from us as an Accountant and how we can help your business. Discussing your business needs and ultimately getting to know you and your own goals.
We offer a wide variety of services ranging from advice and planning to standard tax returns to our full service, which offers a pre-year-end report – allowing you to minimise your tax liability and gain specific information about your business.
If, for example, you were a self-employed hairdresser we would ask you questions like –
- How do you keep track of your income each month? Do you have accounting software in place for this? Or do you keep it written in a salon record book?
- Are all business expenses paid directly from your bank account? Are any of these paid personally?
- What are your goals for the future? This can be professional or personal – allowing COUNT to get to know you better and steer you in the right direction to achieve these.
On the other hand, you might come to COUNT with a more complex challenge. You may find yourself with unsubmitted taxes, with directors leaving the business, wanting to change business structure, or simply looking for customized business reports allowing you to make better decisions.
We would get to know you more on a bespoke level here and often visit premises onsite to get a real ‘feel’ for the business and know it inside out.
You can set up a meeting by emailing or calling the office on 01383 740700.
Step 2 – Complete the onboarding process.
If you feel like you could COUNT on us after our meet, we’ll sign you up to our online portal which will allow you to sign our engagement letter electronically. This letter is always the first step; it is a written agreement that describes the business relationship between us and you.
This onboarding process takes around two minutes to complete and can be done at your fingertips (we know you live busy lives!)
Once signed up, you will have access to your online secure portal. Here, you can upload any information that COUNT requires at any time, keeping confidentiality and security a top priority within the office and your business.
Step 3 – Notify your current Accountants.
After speaking with COUNT and completing our onboarding process, the next step is for you to draft an e-mail CC’ing COUNT into it. The e-mail could look something like this…
“Dear ‘Name’,
I am writing to inform you that we have decided to change accountancy services provider.
We will be using John Mauchline at COUNT Accountants. John will be in touch with you shortly with the request of handover information.
Thank you to all for your support over the last few years and I wish you well in the future.
Kind Regards
Joe Bloggs”
Step 4 – Let us do the rest!
This step is where COUNT tailors our approach (after our initial meet) to suit you and exactly what you need from us.
It may be that our next step is to simply gather information for a yearly tax return and an e-mail would be sufficient. For example, this could be requesting bank statements, copy of sales invoices and expense receipts.
Or it could be developing a plan to tackle a project which may involve bringing in specialised individuals and planning a visit on site your business. Allowing us to extract crucial information for the project and hit the ground running.
Whatever the challenge, you can COUNT on us.
CHANGES TO THE BASIS PERIOD
Calling all COUNT clients! Are you a sole trader or partnership? Do your books run differently to the tax year? Here are some changes to the basis period that might affect you and what you can do.
Jargon Buster (a quick refresher to help clear away the cobwebs)
Basis period = the time frame your business pays tax each year.
Unincorporated business = sole traders and partnerships (excluding limited liability partnerships)
Overlap relief = The tax relief granted to sole traders of partnerships for profits which are taxed twice in the first year of trading.
Bite Size Summary
- Basis period reformed by HMRC to align with the tax year.
- Transition year in 2023-24 before full effect in 2024-25.
- Only unincorporated businesses with a basis period which does not end on the 31st of March or the 5th of April will be affected.
- Affected businesses may face a higher tax bill in 2023-24 as potentially more than twelve months of trade will be taxed in the tax year. Reliefs are available but may not cover the full amount.
- Businesses which opt not to change their basis period to match the tax year will face greater workload going forward.
What’s changing?
In 2021 HMRC announced there was going to be a reform to the basis period with a transition year in the 2023-24 tax year before the reform takes full effect for the following tax year.
The change itself is to how unincorporated businesses calculate their tax each year. As it stands, unincorporated businesses use the current year basis and tax is calculated on the 12-month accounting period which ends in that tax year.
From 2024-25 these businesses will have to use the tax year as their basis period.
Who will this affect?
If you are a sole trader or partnership who already has an accounting date of the 31st of March or 5th of April there will be no impact as you already use the tax year as your basis period.
However, if your unincorporated business uses any other accounting date then these changes will have a direct impact on you.
How will the changes affect me?
In 2023-24 HMRC is providing a transitional year to allow affected businesses to move onto the tax year basis. In action this means that during the current tax year (2023-24) more than 12 months of profits will be taxed.
For example, if you use the 31st of December as your accounting date.
- your business will report its profits from the 1st of January 2023 until the
- 31st of December 2023 as usual plus,
the 3-month period to 31 March 2024.
As the period is longer than 12 months your profit levels may be higher and as a result you may face a higher tax bill than you have done in the past.
Any overlap relief your business has will be offset against these additional profits however, they may not be enough to cover them entirely.
HMRC have taken this into consideration and are allowing these additional profits to be spread over 5 tax years.
Going forward your business would be expected to report income from two different sets of accounts which will increase the workload for both you and your accountant.
What are my next steps?
We would recommend aligning your accounting date with the tax year as this will cut down your workload and who can say no to that?! This is something we would be more than happy to do on your behalf.
For some businesses this may not be suitable, and you may wish to keep your accounting date as it is. We understand this and the team at COUNT are primed and ready to complete the additional work each year.
Please get in contact if you would like to make a change to the accounting date your business uses or if you are still unsure if these changes will affect you.
BASES
CRIEFF
The Old Garage, Mill Hills Farm, Crieff PH7 3QW
DUNFERMLINE
Dunfermline Business Centre, Izatt Avenue, Dunfermline KY11 3BZ