Tax Planning · South East London
Tax planning in Locksbottom
Most tax is saved by decisions made before the year end, not by clever filing after it. People in Locksbottom 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 Locksbottom
Company directors in Locksbottom 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 Locksbottom, 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
The IGI way of working, in Locksbottom
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Locksbottom 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 Locksbottom client and chased before they arrive.
Online only, UK based. There is no office in Locksbottom 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. Locksbottom 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 Locksbottom business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.
You stay in control of tax planning: drafts go to Locksbottom clients first, with the figures explained, and nothing leaves us until you say so.
Local facts
About Locksbottom
Locksbottom is in South East London, within Bromley, in the BR6 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Farnborough and Crofton | 0.2 mi | SE |
| Bromley Common and Keston | 1 mi | W |
| Bromley Common | 1 mi | NW |
| Green Street Green, Bromley | 1 mi | SE |
| Petts Wood and Knoll | 1 mi | NE |
| Keston | 2 mi | W |
| Broom Hill, Bromley | 2 mi | NE |
| Farthing Street | 2 mi | S |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
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
Self Assessment runs on a fixed annual cycle. Registration by 5 October following the tax year, online filing and payment by 31 January, and a second instalment on 31 July for those making payments on account. The penalties for lateness are automatic and escalate monthly, which is why we file early and chase approvals well before the window closes.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
MTD for Income Tax replaces one annual return with quarterly digital updates and a year-end declaration, submitted from software. The threshold is gross trading and property income, measured two years earlier, and started at £50,000 in April 2026 before falling to £30,000 in April 2027. Anyone affected needs digital record keeping in place before their start date, not after.
Late filing penalties
Penalties are the clearest reason to work to deadlines. A Self Assessment return one day late costs £100 regardless of whether any tax is due; three months late adds £10 a day. Late company accounts start at £150 and reach £1,500, and double if the previous year was also late. None of this is negotiable afterwards except through a narrow reasonable-excuse appeal.
Corporation Tax rates and marginal relief
Corporation Tax is not a flat rate. Profits to £50,000 pay 19%, profits above £250,000 pay 25%, and the band between is taxed at an effective marginal rate of 26.5% through the marginal relief mechanism. Associated companies share the thresholds, which catches directors who own more than one company and is the most common cause of underpaid tax in owner-managed groups.
The VAT registration threshold
VAT registration is compulsory once taxable turnover in any rolling twelve-month period exceeds £90,000, or when you expect to exceed that in the next thirty days alone. The test is rolling, not by tax year, and includes zero-rated sales. Businesses regularly cross it without noticing, and late registration means accounting for VAT on sales where it was never charged to customers.
Director's loan accounts
Money taken from a company has to be something: salary, dividend, expense reimbursement or loan. If it is a loan and remains outstanding nine months after the year end, the company pays tax at the dividend higher rate on it until it is repaid. Clearing the balance with a properly declared dividend before the deadline, where reserves allow, is routine year-end work.
Questions
Tax Planning questions from Locksbottom
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.
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.
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 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.
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 Locksbottom?
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 Locksbottom 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 Locksbottom 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.
Fixed fees, filed on time, for Locksbottom
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.