While doing your accounting does save a little money on accounting fees, it’s not always the best choice, primarily if none of your team members are licensed, professional accountants. If you’re a sole proprietor, you may want to learn how to keep books and file your tax return, but trying to learn about company accounts and taxes without help from a professional can be a false economy. It also takes precious time to manage the essentials, such as operations.
As long as you choose a great accountant, you’ll see how they can help your company run smoothly. Here’s how they help with the following:
Business Tax and Corporate Accounts
The primary annual filings that a limited company needs to do are the yearly company accounts and the corporation tax return. A few years ago, HMRC and Companies House announced that all submissions must be
electronic
and prepared in a specialised or cloud-based accounting software package. Proprietary software offers many benefits over cloud-based software, including piecemeal creation of accounts, fewer restrictions on the data that can be stored, and greater flexibility to use other pieces of software.
Cloud-based accounting software offers lower costs, less specialist knowledge required to use the software, and can be accessed anywhere. Still, don’t do these by yourself. Get an accountant who knows how to compute and work with the software.
Cloud Accounting Management
A good accountant will work with you to create an accounting system that makes running your business more accessible and efficient. The accountant will ensure you have up-to-date financial information to make the best possible business decisions. If you do not have time to run the system yourself, the accountant can take care of all your record-keeping.
Confirmations and Various Companies House Filings
Along with the annual tax report, confirmation statements are needed once a year to confirm all the standing data for the limited company. The limited and its officers must keep their information about the ultimate beneficial owners. The limited company usually holds this and can be updated by filing PSC forms.
If any changes occur to the company—changing its year-end, share structure, registered office, or any other significant alteration—these must be reported to Companies House. Again, these filings are much more straightforward with software, which your accountant will know how to use.
Tax Tips
Limited companies are tax-efficient because they can have a lower tax bill, so long as they have an expert accountant. They can file company taxes and personal taxes for the company directors. The advantage of having one person act for your company and the directors and owners is that the company taxes and personal taxes interact.
Salary, dividends, pension contributions, corporation tax, and personal tax are interlinked. Only someone with an overview can choose the optimum combination of these types of taxes, and you’ll rest easy knowing that you’re only paying what you need to. In some cases, clients save tens of thousands of pounds a year by restructuring their remuneration packages tax-efficiently, thanks to their accountant.
Don’t Go It Alone, Hire an Accountant
Running a company takes most of your time, especially if you’re the CEO. You need to concentrate on the big picture and leave the details to your managers and supervisors. In the same manner, you need to entrust accounting to a professional that can keep your books in order and ensure compliance with the government.
We work with a wide range of businesses, industries, and structures. Please
contact us
for more information and to see how we can help you.