Start-up Businesses Advice
Salford Chartered Accountants are the one stop shop for all new start-up businesses. Our new start up package for all new clients includes all the following.
- Competitive Fixed Accountancy fees by an established firm of Chartered Accountants for two years.
- 25% discount on all first-year accountancy fees.
- Free Profit and Loss and Cash Flow forecast for all new clients.
- Full business review.
- Assistance with obtaining business grants and funding and investment.
- All year Access to our dedicated business start-up team.
- Marketing and Social media advice, Internet sales advice. Free third party marketing support. EU sales. Exporting to Non-EU countries.
- Free business partnership agreement/Directors Agreement.
Here at Salford Chartered Accountants our business start-up team are dedicated to make your business dreams a reality. We know it is difficult to succeed in today’s extremely competitive environment. Businesses and especially start-up businesses need as much professional advice and assistance as possible. Our business start-up team offers all of this.
Simply put – We believe our start up package offers the best terms for all new business start-ups from any Chartered Accountancy and Business Advisory firms.
Please contact us to arrange a
FREE 1 hour consultation
without any obligation
Salford Chartered Accountants offer a wide and varied range of related tax and accountancy services from simple company incorporations and business start-up expertise to full representation in the most complex of tax and vat investigations.
Sole Traders/Partnership:
HMRC Requirements.
All individuals who have just commenced trading must register with HMRC within 12 weeks. Failure to do so could lead to a fine of £100.00. This can be done by our business start-up team or by yourself online registering on www.gov.uk or by downloading and completing a paper cwf-1 and signing and posting to HMRC. If there any aspects of completing the form “register for self-employment” we will be happy to advise.
You may wish to involve more than one business owner and become a business partnership. Business partnerships can involve any number of partners who may wish to either split the share of the profits equally amongst the partners or alternatively one partner may wish to have most of the profits. We offer a free partnership agreement to all new business partnership clients. From our experience this saves a lot of wasted time and outlines the roles of each of the partners, time factors, contingency plans in the event of illness/Death.
FREE Partnership Agreement
The partners must register the partnership with HMRC and then register as individual partners within the partnership to HMRC. Our business support team will assist in all these aspects.
Once registered as a Sole Trader or a Partnership a first year set of accounts is prepared usually from the date of commencement of trading up to and including the 5th April of the following year. This Iis called the first accounting period.
The profits or losses are calculated from the sole trader business or the partners share of the profit or losses from the partnership and added to any other income in that tax year. This may be income from employment / pension income / certain state benefits amongst a list of many. Tax is calculated accordingly and offset against tax already paid in the tax year by the taxpayer.
IF YOU WISH TO OBTAIN YOUR FREE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT CLICK HERE
TAX REPAYMENT
In some cases, a tax repayment may occur for a new sole trader business. This usually occurs when a business owner invests in equipment or capital items or initial costs for his or her business and the business makes a first-year trading loss. A hairdressers’ salon is a typical example. The trading loss in self-employment could be treated several ways but one way is to offset it against employment income earned in that year. This may result in a tax repayment.
If you feel you may be due a tax repayment or would like a free tax calculation, please complete your details below.
VAT
Vat Registration is not mandatory unless sales turnover exceeds the vat threshold, although some businesses especially those within the construction industry decide to register for vat immediately. The vat threshold from 1st April 2016 was 83,000. A vat application can be made online or by downloading vat application form. Vat is normally accounted for to HMRC on a quarterly basis, although in some cases a vat refund (repayment) may be a regular occurrence and the taxpayer may wish to file a vat return monthly. Equally the taxpayer may wish to file a vat return on an annual basis. The actual date when the supply is deemed to have taken place is known as “the tax point “.
A Vat invoice must normally be issued if a taxable person makes a vat taxable supply to another taxable person. Upon vat registration, the individual or incorporated business will receive a vat certificate outlining the vat registration number which must be shown on all invoices. The vat certificate will also outline the dates for the first vat period to be submitted. Vat returns must be submitted online and filed within a month and seven days following the vat period. The same condition applies to payment of vat. In the event of a late submission of a vat return HMRC will incur late surcharge fines which rise dependent on the number of late vat returns submitted.
There are several special schemes which will simplify the workings of the vat system. The schemes are the cash accounting scheme, the annual accounting scheme, the flat rate scheme for smaller businesses, the Vat Margin scheme, the flat rate scheme for farmers. The input tax suffered in relation to certain types of supply is not recoverable. Special rules apply for car fuel bought by a business and then used for private motoring. A person making a mixture of taxable supplies and exempt supplies is “partially exempt” and may reclaim only part of input tax suffered.
The Vat system and the managing and compliance of the vat system is run and administered by HMRC. Strict penalties are issued and enforced for non-compliance with Vat Regulations and laws.
HMRC may at will decide to issue a vat compliance visit for inspection of record keeping. This may result in a further vat investigation into a specific vat period or vat periods. If you find you are subject to a vat investigation and require professional advice, please call Salford Chartered Accountants for a free no obligation consultation.
Newly Incorporated Companies: Limited Companies.
Corporation tax is the tax charged to Limited Companies. Corporation tax is charged on the worldwide profits of UK resident companies. Non-UK resident companies which trade in the UK through a permanent establishment are charged to Corporation tax on the profits of that establishment.
Corporation tax is charged in respect of accounting periods. The length of any accounting period can never exceed 12 months. A period of account which is longer than 12 months is therefore divided into two or even more accounting periods. A companies’ taxable total profits consist of all its income, any sale of assets known as chargeable gains, minus any qualifying donations to charities.
Limited Company accounts generally need to be filed 9 months after the accounting year end. A company tax return must be filed within 12 months of the accounting period. HMRC will issue fines for any corporation tax returns that are not filed within this period.
Company directors receive a company remuneration and may decide to pay themselves through a mixture of a small salary to use their personal allowance currently £11,000 for tax year 2016/2017 and a mixture dividends.
Strict filing laws and enforced by Companies House in respect of filing documentation, accounts and other regulatory forms. A confirmation statement must be filed as well as abbreviated and/or full limited company accounts each year. There is a myriad of forms which Companies House issue which can be filed online or downloaded in paper format. All company documentation must be completed correctly or the document examination branch of Companies House will reject any such forms.
A company’s property income is assessed in a similar way to the property income of an individual.
On the issue of a notice by HM Revenue and Customs, a company must file a corporation tax return (Form CT600) for the accounting period specified in the notice, with supporting accounts and computations. The return must normally be filed with HMRC by the latest of the following dates:
- 12 months after the end of the accounting period specified in the notice.
- 12 months after the end of the period of account in which the last day of the specified accounting period falls (but periods of account which last for more than 18 months are treated for this purpose as ending after 18 months).
- 3 Months after issues of the notice.
Most Companies prepare their accounts to the same date each year and notices are usually issued within a few weeks of the end of each periods of account, so that the required filing date is normally 12 months after the end of the period of account. There is nothing to prevent a company from submitting an early return. Online filing of company CT600 tax returns is now mandatory.
The CT600 company tax return includes a formal self-assessment of the company’s tax liability for the accounting period covered by the return. Unlike individuals, a company is not allowed to request HMRC to calculate the tax liability.
HMRC has the right to amend a company’s tax return (So as to correct obvious errors or omissions or anything else that is believed to be incorrect) within nine months of the date on which the return is filed. Similarly, the company has the right to amend its tax return and self-assessment within 12 months of the required filing date for that return.