Tax Planning · Central London
Tax planning in Cheap
Most tax is saved by decisions made before the year end, not by clever filing after it. People in Cheap use our planning reviews to find out, in writing and with numbers, what their options are: how to pay themselves, when to take dividends, whether a pension contribution beats a salary rise, how to use both spouses' allowances. Fixed fee, no schemes.
from £249 · fixed, per review
Next deadlines
- Online Self Assessment filing deadline and balancing payment due
- Tax year ends: last day for pension, ISA and dividend timing decisions
- Companies House accounts due 9 months after your year end (a 31 December year end files by 30 September)
- Corporation Tax payment, 9 months and 1 day after your year end (a 31 December year end pays by 1 October)
Who this is for
Tax Planning for Cheap
Company directors in Cheap deciding how to pay themselves, higher earners near the £100,000 personal allowance taper or the £125,140 additional rate, couples who could use both sets of allowances better, landlords and investors with gains to time, business owners approaching a year end with profit to deploy, and anyone whose affairs have grown more complicated than their current adviser has noticed.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- A review of your current position across income tax, National Insurance, dividends, Corporation Tax and capital gains as relevant
- Allowances and reliefs checked: personal allowance taper, marriage allowance, pension annual allowance, dividend and savings allowances, ISA use
- Director remuneration modelled: salary, dividends, pension contributions and benefits for the coming year
- Timing decisions quantified: dividends across tax years, capital expenditure before year end, pension contributions, disposals
- A written report with the recommendations, the saving from each and the actions in order
- A follow-up call to answer questions and agree what we implement for you
How it works
Tax Planning from Cheap, step by step
Scope the job
We find out what you need filed, when it is due and what state the records are in, and tell you which fixed-fee package applies.
Agree the price
The fee is confirmed in writing. There is no hourly billing and nothing added for questions during the work.
Hand over the records
Photographs, PDFs, software access or a spreadsheet, sent however suits you. We confirm what we have and what is missing within two working days.
Approve, then we submit
You review the draft with our explanation, sign off, and we file. Receipts, copies and the next deadlines come back to you immediately.
Why IGI
Why Cheap businesses file with IGI
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Cheap clients know the fee for tax planning before they send a single document, and it stays fixed.
Deadline-first: the dates that matter for tax planning are shown at the top of this page, diarised for every Cheap client and chased before they arrive.
Online only, UK based. There is no office in Cheap to pay for, which is why the fee is the same here as anywhere in England; the work is done by people in the UK who answer the same day.
You get one contact for tax planning, not a queue. Cheap clients message the same person throughout and get an answer in working hours, usually within a few hours.
Plain English, with the numbers. Every draft for Cheap comes with a short explanation of what the figures mean and what, if anything, you should do about them.
Approval before filing is a rule, not a courtesy. For tax planning in Cheap, every submission to HMRC or Companies House follows your written go-ahead.
Local facts
About Cheap
Cheap is in Central London, within City of London, in the EC2V postcode district, England. For businesses in England the tax rules are those set by the UK Parliament: the 20/40/45% income tax bands, Class 4 National Insurance for the self-employed at 6% and 2%, Corporation Tax at 19% to 25%, and Stamp Duty Land Tax on property. Business rates are set locally by the council.
| Place | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| City of London | 0.1 mi | E |
| Cheapside, City of London | 0.1 mi | SE |
| Guildhall, City of London | 0.1 mi | NE |
| Bassishaw | 0.1 mi | NE |
| Bread Street, City of London | 0.2 mi | SW |
| Cordwainer | 0.2 mi | SE |
| St Paul's, City of London | 0.2 mi | SW |
| Mansion House | 0.2 mi | S |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Corporation Tax rates and marginal relief
Companies pay Corporation Tax at 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% on profits over £250,000. Between those figures marginal relief applies, producing an effective rate that rises gradually and a marginal rate of 26.5% on each pound in the band. The thresholds are divided by the number of associated companies, so a director with two companies has thresholds of £25,000 and £125,000 for each.
The VAT registration threshold
The £90,000 VAT threshold is measured over any twelve consecutive months, which is why a strong quarter can tip a business over unexpectedly. Registration must follow within thirty days of the end of the month the threshold was crossed. Below the threshold, voluntary registration is worth considering when customers are VAT-registered businesses and costs carry VAT.
Director's loan accounts
A director's loan account records money moving between a director and the company that is not salary or dividend. If the director owes the company money nine months and one day after the year end, the company pays section 455 tax at 35.75% of the balance, refundable only when the loan is repaid. Loans over £10,000 are also a benefit in kind unless interest is charged at HMRC's official rate.
Salary versus dividends
Paying yourself from a company involves two routes with different tax treatment. Salary through payroll is a company expense and builds a National Insurance record; dividends come from post-tax profit at lower personal rates. Undocumented drawings that are neither become director's loans, with a 35.75% section 455 charge if not repaid within nine months of the year end.
Payments on account
If your Self Assessment bill exceeds £1,000 and less than 80% of your tax was collected at source, HMRC asks for two advance payments towards the following year, each half of the current bill, due 31 January and 31 July. The first year this happens the January payment is effectively one and a half times the bill. We model it in advance and show you how to reduce the payments if income is falling.
The Self Assessment calendar
The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. Anyone new to Self Assessment must register by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which their untaxed income began. The online return and the balancing payment are due by 31 January, with a second payment on account on 31 July where they apply. Paper returns have an earlier deadline of 31 October and are rarely sensible.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax began in April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, extends to those over £30,000 in April 2027 and is planned for £20,000 in April 2028. It requires digital records in compatible software and four quarterly updates to HMRC each year, with a final declaration replacing the traditional return. Payment dates are unchanged.
Questions
Tax Planning questions from Cheap
Will you implement the recommendations?
Where the actions fall within our services, such as setting the payroll salary, documenting dividends, adjusting the company's pension contributions or making an election, yes, as part of those services. Where they need a financial adviser, for example choosing pension investments, we tell you what to ask them.
How often should planning be reviewed?
Annually, ideally in the first quarter of the tax year so that decisions have the full year to work. Thresholds and rates change each April, your income changes, and the company's profit changes. Clients in our monthly packages get a planning conversation as part of the Complete and Premium tiers.
How does pension planning fit in?
Pension contributions get relief at your marginal rate, employer contributions are deductible for Corporation Tax and free of National Insurance, and unused annual allowance from the previous three years can be carried forward. For directors it is usually the most efficient extraction route after a basic salary. We calculate your headroom and the saving.
What about the personal allowance taper and the £100,000 trap?
Between £100,000 and £125,140 of adjusted income the personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2, producing an effective marginal rate of 60%. Pension contributions and gift aid reduce adjusted income and are often the best use of money in that band. The review quantifies this precisely for your figures.
What is the pre-year-end planning session?
A £299 session two to three months before a company's year end, using management or draft figures to decide what to do before the date: capital expenditure to claim full expensing, employer pension contributions, bonus or dividend timing, bad debt provisions, and whether to change the accounting date. Decisions made after the year end are mostly too late.
When should I buy the combined review?
When the company and personal positions interact, which for most owner-managers they do. The £399 combined review covers both sides together: Corporation Tax planning, extraction strategy, capital expenditure timing, pension contributions as a company expense, and the personal position of each director or shareholder. It replaces the two separate reviews.
How do I get started from Cheap?
Message us on WhatsApp or email with a sentence about your business and what you need. We reply in working hours with any questions and a fixed fee for tax planning. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most Cheap clients are set up within a day.
Which deadlines matter most for tax planning?
The next four dates that apply to tax planning are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For Cheap clients we diarise every one of them from the day you join and send reminders before each, so the work is done in good time rather than in the last week before a penalty.
Start the conversation from Cheap
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.