Tax Planning · West Midlands
Tax planning in Lichfield
If you are a director, a higher earner or a landlord in Lichfield and nobody has ever sat down with your whole position, income, company, pensions, property, spouse, and worked through it, this is that review. We do it for clients across West Midlands by video call and written report, for a fee agreed before we start, using established reliefs only.
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 Lichfield
Company directors in Lichfield 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 Lichfield, step by step
Tell us your situation
A short message or call about what you do and what needs filing. We ask the questions that determine the right package and nothing more.
Fixed fee in writing
You receive one price for the work, confirmed by email before anything starts. It does not change if the job takes longer than we expected.
Send records, review the draft
Records come by WhatsApp or email. We prepare the draft, explain the figures in plain English and answer your questions.
We file, you get the receipts
Once you approve and the fee is settled, we submit electronically and forward the HMRC or Companies House acknowledgement the same day.
Why IGI
The IGI way of working, in Lichfield
One fixed fee for tax planning in Lichfield, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.
Nothing for Lichfield is left to the last week. Each deadline relevant to tax planning is tracked from the day you join, with the next four shown on every page we send you.
No appointments, no travel across West Midlands, no parking. Everything for tax planning in Lichfield happens online, with a real person on the other end during UK working hours.
You get one contact for tax planning, not a queue. Lichfield clients message the same person throughout and get an answer in working hours, usually within a few hours.
We explain tax planning in the words Lichfield business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.
Nothing is filed for Lichfield until you have reviewed and approved it. You see the draft, you ask questions, you sign off, then we submit and send you the receipt.
Local facts
About Lichfield
Lichfield is in West Midlands, in the WS13 postcode district, England. Income tax in England follows the UK rates: 20% basic to £50,270, 40% higher to £125,140 and 45% additional, with the personal allowance of £12,570 tapered away above £100,000. National Insurance, VAT and Corporation Tax are UK-wide, and Stamp Duty Land Tax applies to property purchases.
| Place | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Stowe, Lichfield | 0.6 mi | NE |
| Christ Church Gardens | 0.6 mi | N |
| Leyfields, West Midlands | 0.6 mi | N |
| Ponesfields | 0.6 mi | N |
| Leomansley | 0.7 mi | SW |
| Nether Stowe | 0.8 mi | NE |
| Stowe, Nether | 0.8 mi | NE |
| Leamonsley | 0.8 mi | SW |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Late filing penalties
HMRC's penalties for a late Self Assessment return are automatic: £100 the day after 31 January, £10 a day from three months late up to £900, then the greater of £300 or 5% of the tax at six and twelve months. Interest and separate late-payment penalties apply to the tax itself. Companies House charges £150 to £1,500 for late accounts, doubling for a second consecutive year.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
The biggest change to Self Assessment in a generation is Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, now live for higher-earning sole traders and landlords and arriving for the rest in stages. Quarterly updates are due by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, built from digital records. The practical consequence is that spreadsheet-and-shoebox bookkeeping is ending for anyone above the threshold.
The Self Assessment calendar
Four dates govern Self Assessment: 5 October to register, 31 October for paper returns, 31 January to file online and pay, and 31 July for the second payment on account. Missing the January date triggers an automatic £100 penalty before any tax is even considered, so we treat it as the fixed point around which the rest of the year is planned.
Payments on account
A common surprise in Self Assessment is the January payment that is far larger than expected. That is the balancing payment for the year just ended plus the first payment on account for the year ahead, which HMRC sets at half of the bill just calculated. We put the figure in your hands months ahead and tell you how to adjust it legitimately when circumstances change.
Salary versus dividends
Directors of their own companies usually take a salary at or just above the National Insurance thresholds, which keeps the year qualifying for State Pension and is deductible for Corporation Tax, with further income as dividends. Dividends above the £500 allowance are taxed at 10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35% by band and can only be paid from distributable profits after tax, with a minute and voucher each time.
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.
The VAT registration threshold
Watching the rolling twelve-month turnover figure is one of the quiet jobs of monthly bookkeeping, because the £90,000 VAT threshold arrives silently. Crossing it brings quarterly returns, Making Tax Digital software and a decision about schemes. Crossing it late brings a bill for VAT you could not recover from customers and a penalty for failing to notify.
Questions
Tax Planning questions from Lichfield
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.
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 do I need to provide?
Your last tax return, the company's last accounts and current management figures if you have them, pension statements, details of other income and your spouse's position if relevant, and an idea of what you want from the business over the next few years. We send a short checklist when you book.
Is tax planning advice regulated?
Tax advice is not a reserved activity in the UK, so no regulator licenses it, but we are bound by our terms of business and the advice disclaimer on this site, and we carry professional indemnity insurance. Advice is given in writing so that you can rely on it and we can be held to it.
Do you recommend tax avoidance schemes?
No. We use established reliefs and allowances that Parliament intended: pensions, ISAs, spousal transfers, capital allowances, dividend and salary structuring, timing. We do not sell arrangements that depend on HMRC not noticing. If someone offers you a scheme that sounds too good, the £249 review will tell you why it probably is.
How much tax will a review save me?
It depends entirely on your position, and we would rather not promise a number. Common findings are a director salary set years ago at the wrong level, pension headroom unused, a spouse's allowances wasted, dividends bunched into one tax year and capital allowances missed. For most directors the saving exceeds the fee several times; where it would not, we say so before you pay.
Do you have an office in Lichfield?
No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve Lichfield and every other UK postcode remotely, with records sent by WhatsApp or email and everything filed electronically. The absence of local premises is why the fee for tax planning is the same in Lichfield as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.
Is tax planning in Lichfield really the same price as elsewhere?
Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Lichfield pays and what a client in any other part of England pays. It is confirmed in writing before work starts and the invoice matches the quote. Where a higher package applies because your situation is more complex, we say so at the quote stage, never afterwards.
One message from Lichfield, one fixed price
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.