Tax Planning · South West London
Tax planning in Strawberry Hill
Most tax is saved by decisions made before the year end, not by clever filing after it. People in Strawberry Hill 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 Strawberry Hill
Company directors in Strawberry Hill 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 Strawberry Hill, 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 Strawberry Hill businesses file with IGI
The price for tax planning is published on this page and is what a client in Strawberry Hill pays. We confirm it in writing first, and the invoice matches the quote.
Nothing for Strawberry Hill 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 South West London, no parking. Everything for tax planning in Strawberry Hill happens online, with a real person on the other end during UK working hours.
A named person handles your tax planning from Strawberry Hill and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.
The output for Strawberry Hill clients is never just a form. It is the form, a one-page summary of what it says, and a note of the decisions it points to for tax planning.
Nothing is filed for Strawberry Hill 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 Strawberry Hill
Strawberry Hill is in South West London, within Richmond upon Thames, in the TW2 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 |
|---|---|---|
| South Twickenham | 0.1 mi | NE |
| Twickenham Green | 0.4 mi | N |
| Fulwell, Richmond upon Thames | 0.5 mi | SW |
| Twickenham | 0.8 mi | NE |
| Eel Pie Island | 0.8 mi | NE |
| Teddington | 0.8 mi | S |
| West Twickenham | 0.8 mi | W |
| Fulwell and Hampton Hill | 0.9 mi | SW |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Questions
Tax Planning questions from Strawberry Hill
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 Strawberry Hill?
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 Strawberry Hill 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 Strawberry Hill 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 Strawberry Hill
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.