Increasing pressure of more rules and regulations can consume a large amount of your time and effort.

Advising a wide range of businesses of all sizes across the service, manufacturing and trading sectors, we take care of the paperwork to give you more time to run your business. If the tax authorities are increasing your burden by raising formal enquiries, we can protect your interests and minimise your tax costs.

We can help you set up the most practical and tax-efficient structure at each step of your business’s development, and help you avoid the tax pitfalls at key stages, which are otherwise expensive to unravel.

Choosing the right business vehicle to suit your venture, your business plan and your capital needs will give you an advantage over less well-prepared competitors. The nature of a business, the financial and human capital it utilises, the sector in which it operates and the assets it owns and uses all contribute to the tax costs it faces. We help clients develop practical, tax-efficient business structures to keep these tax costs under control whilst maintaining maximum flexibility for business growth or exit for the business owners.

Many start-up businesses are now formed as companies, but this may not be the best long-term option for every business. A limited liability partnership (LLP) has many of the same advantages but with a simpler structure. Even when a company is the right option, it is important for companies to get the ownership structure correct from the start. If you provide professional services through your company, careful consideration of your contracts with customers will be needed to ensure that you get the maximum benefit from the company structure. Click here for a detailed guide.

Growth brings many new demands. You may wish to expand overseas, design and implement remuneration packages for key employees or devise strategies to maximise your personal returns. As well as advising on the tax impact of your ideas, we also help you build tax-efficiency into your business planning and decision making.

Every owner must leave their business at some point and, with our help, planning ahead for exit or succession will mean you can leave on your own terms in an efficient and cost-effective way. It is never too early to start thinking about your exit strategy; it can be argued that even your original business plan should include a section on exit strategy, and that this should be updated throughout the life of your business. Sensible succession and exit planning is not a single event but a deliberate, tailored process that requires planning, teamwork and constant re-evaluation. Our starting point is to help you identify your own unique personal and financial goals. Only once these are clear can we help you decide how best to achieve them.

Maximising your financial return when you transfer your business means minimising your tax liability. We can review the various options for selling or passing on the business to identify the most practical and tax-efficient route for you. Part of this process will include a detailed examination of your business and its assets to minimise the subsequent capital gains tax and inheritance tax liabilities and to identify the pension issues. A plan of preparatory actions can then be developed so that you have a clear understanding of what needs to be done (for example, to preserve business asset taper relief for capital gains tax purposes).

If you are acquiring or selling a business, making a substantial investment or realising assets, the event will affect the financial position of the business and its owners for years to come. The right advice is therefore crucial.

We help clients plan and carry through key transactions with a clear, step-by-step approach to ensure success.

We find the best transaction options by assessing your business objectively and understanding the goals of the business and its owners. We explore the best options with you, whether a full business sale is envisaged or simply releasing some capital for future investment.

If you are acquiring a new business or investment, we can provide a complete due diligence service so that there are no unexpected tax liabilities and plans for the future can be drawn up in the most tax-efficient way for the new venture.

The best-laid plans can still fail without effective project management. We make your plans a reality with an orderly approach that keeps all elements of the transactions under control and accurately documented by all parties.

By keeping you fully briefed, we put you at the heart of the deal without swamping you with paperwork.

Building on our experience in handling the compliance requirements for many types of transactions, we ensure that a robust documentary audit trail is established from the start. This ensures that there is no additional burden in returning the appropriate information to the authorities.

Whether your business is entering UK markets for the first time or expanding into other countries from a UK base, our international tax consultants will explain the options open to you and help you set up the most appropriate business vehicles and structures to achieve your long term goals.

Keeping up to date on employment tax legislation is often difficult as is developing a company policy on employment taxation, benefits and expenses.  Our experience can help you meet your compliance requirements and deal with the ever-increasing burden of complex tax (e.g. PAYE) and National Insurance Contributions (NIC) legislation by providing a wide range of tax-based services, advice and packages on employment tax related issues.

VAT rules permeate every part of most businesses.  We can help you to analyse your business to identify risks and tax-saving opportunities to reduce costs and improve your cash flow, from advice on VAT registration to tax planning, international services, land and property and business acquisitions and disposals.