Tax planning in uncertain times – why we need to talk about tax
We live in what might be seen as ‘interesting times’. UK politics is going through a turbulent and unpredictable time at present, leading to unforeseen changes to tax legislation, business reliefs and enterprise incentives across the board.
When the goalposts keep moving so frequently, it can be confusing:
- Is your business meeting the right tax compliance goals?
- What are the big tax changes to be aware of?
- And is your tax planning delivering the very best results for you and for your company?
To keep on the ball, it’s important to talk to us regularly about your tax requirements, your understanding of the latest changes and the underlying goals for your business.
The need for regular tax-planning conversations
As your accountant and tax adviser, we want to help you get the best outcomes from your tax planning. But in the current environment, that’s difficult to achieve if we only speak to you about tax on an annual basis. With tax measures currently being introduced, cancelled, reversed and then reinstated, these conversations need to happen more regularly.
The frequency of these tax planning chats will depend on the size of your business, and the complexity of your structure and shareholder set-up. But we should be talking to you at least once every quarter about the tweaks and changes that are needed in your plan.
In these tax planning sessions, we can:
- Update you on the latest tax measures – with the government changing Chancellors like some people change their socks, there have been a LOT of changes to the tax code in recent times. We’ll tell you which measures still apply, which have changed and which personal and business taxes you need to be aware of.
- Tell you how these measures affect you – we’ll run you through the implications of any changes to things like corporation tax, income tax and available business reliefs. We can show you the impact on your tax returns for the coming periods, and what this means for your tax costs and your cashflow at large.
- Listen to your evolving plans for the business – we’ll also ask you about your future business plans and what you want to achieve in the coming quarter. When we know what your aims are, we’ll do our best to help you come up with a business strategy that’s closely aligned with your tax-planning strategy.
- Suggest planning measures to benefit you and your business – when we know your business goals, we can help you plan your tax more effectively. For example, if you’re planning on investing in research and development (R&D), we can talk to you about reliefs like the R&D Tax Credits, Innovation Grants or the Patent Box.
- Update your tax plan for the year – with the outputs from a productive tax-planning session, we’ll come up with a refreshed and updated tax plan for the coming period (and beyond). It’s the best way to stay on top of an unpredictable tax landscape while delivering the best in tax compliance and tax efficiency.
Talk to us about booking in a tax-planning session
We’ll always do our utmost to help you plan out your tax liabilities and keep the business in a positive cashflow position. That’s why regular tax-planning sessions are so important.
The days of deciding on a tax strategy at the start of the year and then forgetting about it are gone. As taxpayers and tax advisers, we both have to be nimble, flexible and aware of the big changes taking place economically in the UK.
Book a tax-planning conversation with us and let’s start improving your strategy.
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