Advisory & planning
Tax planning
Tax planning is the work of arranging your affairs within the rules so that you pay what the law requires and no more. It is distinct from compliance, which is reporting what happened, and most of its value comes from decisions taken before the tax year or accounting period ends: how a director is paid, when dividends are declared, whether a pension contribution is made by the company or the individual, when an asset is sold, how income is split between spouses, and whether capital expenditure falls before or after a year end. After the date, most of these options are gone.
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)
Fees
Packages, fixed and published
£249
Personal tax review
£249
Director remuneration review
£399
Business + personal combined review
£299
Pre-year-end planning session (companies)
Who this is for
Tax Planning
Company directors in the UK 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
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
In detail
How tax planning works
Our planning products are fixed in scope and fee so that you know what you are buying. The personal tax review at £249 covers an individual's whole position: income from all sources, the allowances in use and unused, pension headroom including carry-forward, the personal allowance taper between £100,000 and £125,140 where the effective marginal rate reaches 60%, the High Income Child Benefit charge, savings and dividend allowances, marriage allowance and gift aid, and the timing of disposals against the £3,000 capital gains exemption. The director remuneration review at £249 models the coming year's salary, dividends, employer pension contributions and benefits against the company's expected profit, showing total tax and National Insurance under each structure and including a spouse's shareholding and allowances where relevant.
The combined business and personal review at £399 is for the common case where the two sides interact, which for owner-managed companies is almost always. It takes the company's Corporation Tax position, including the rate band and associated companies, capital expenditure timing against full expensing and the annual investment allowance, and employer pension contributions as a deductible expense, and works them through to each director and shareholder's personal position. The pre-year-end planning session at £299 is a company-focused version held two to three months before the accounting date using management or draft figures, when there is still time to buy equipment, make contributions, time a bonus or dividend, or change the accounting date.
The output is a written report, not a conversation that evaporates. Each recommendation is stated with the saving it produces, the action required and the order in which to do things, followed by a call to go through it and agree what we implement. Where actions fall within our services, setting the payroll salary, documenting dividends, adjusting company pension contributions, making a Form 17 election or timing a capital purchase, we carry them out as part of those services; where they need a regulated financial adviser, such as choosing pension investments, we tell you what to ask. Advice is in writing so that you can rely on it and we can be held to it under our terms of business.
What we do not do is sell schemes. Every recommendation uses reliefs and allowances that Parliament created for the purpose: pensions, ISAs, transfers between spouses at no gain, dividend and salary structuring, capital allowances, timing. Arrangements that depend on HMRC not noticing, or on a reading of the law that a tribunal has not tested, are not planning, and the aftermath of such schemes keeps our investigation service busy. Planning should be reviewed each year, ideally early in the tax year, because thresholds move every April and so do your income and the company's profit. Clients in our Complete and Premium monthly packages get that conversation included.
Process
From first message to filed
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.
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Record keeping
HMRC requires records of all income and expenses, bank statements, invoices and receipts to be kept for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline of the tax year they relate to, and companies must keep records for six years from the end of the accounting period. Digital copies are acceptable. Under Making Tax Digital the records must be kept in compatible software.
Allowable expenses
An expense is allowable against trading profit if it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. Materials, business travel other than ordinary commuting, a proportion of home running costs, software, insurance, professional fees, bank charges and protective clothing qualify. Client entertainment, ordinary clothing, fines and the private share of mixed-use costs do not.
Crypto records and reporting
Most crypto holders have taxable events they do not recognise, because every swap is a disposal even when no pounds change hands. The computation requires the complete transaction history from every exchange and wallet, pooled by asset with HMRC's matching rules applied. Exchange-generated tax reports are frequently wrong because they cannot see transfers between a user's own wallets.
The 60-day property CGT return
The 60-day Capital Gains Tax return on residential property is the deadline landlords most often miss, because it falls outside the Self Assessment cycle and runs from completion, not exchange. Private residence relief for periods you lived in the property, plus the final nine months, reduces the gain. Penalties for a late return mirror Self Assessment, starting at £100.
Dormant companies
Dormancy is a status that is easy to lose. The strict rule is no accounting transactions other than share capital and Companies House fees, which means no bank account activity at all in practice. Fees should be paid personally by the director. A company that traded and has stopped becomes dormant only after its final trading accounts and tax return are filed and HMRC is told.
The trading and property allowances
Small side incomes are covered by two £1,000 allowances, one for trading and one for property, which remove the need to register or report income below that level. Once income exceeds £1,000, the allowance can be used in place of expenses, a choice worth making deliberately: a freelancer with £900 of costs is better off with the allowance, one with £3,000 is not.
Employer National Insurance
The cost of an employee is more than the salary. Employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year, the 3% minimum pension contribution, holiday pay, equipment and management time all come on top. The Employment Allowance of £10,500 reduces the National Insurance for most employers with more than one person on the payroll.
Questions
Tax Planning: your questions answered
What does the £249 personal tax review cover?
Your income from all sources, the allowances and reliefs you are and are not using, pension contribution headroom, the personal allowance taper and High Income Child Benefit charge if relevant, savings and dividend allowances, ISA use, marriage allowance, gift aid and the timing of any disposals. You receive a written report with quantified recommendations.
What does the director remuneration review cover?
For £249 we model the coming year's salary, dividends, employer pension contributions and any benefits against the company's expected profit and your other income, showing the total tax and National Insurance under each option and recommending a structure. It includes the use of a spouse's shareholding and allowances where relevant.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Where
Tax Planning across the UK
This service has a local page for the 1,680 larger towns and cities we cover, and is delivered nationally everywhere else. A selection:
- Arnold
- Beeston
- Belper
- Bishop Auckland
- Blendon
- Brunswick Park
- Buxton
- Church End, Barnet
- Consett
- Crook Log
- Crossness
- Erith Riverside
- Grahame Park
- Hendon Central
- High Barnet
- Ilkeston
- Leamington Spa
- Lessness Heath
- Long Eaton
- Longlands, Bexley
- Mill Hill East
- North End, Bexley
- Oakham
- Oswestry
- Park Royal
- Rushden
- South Shields
- Sutton-in-Ashfield
- Thamesmead East
- Thamesmead North
- Thamesmead South
- The Oval Sidcup
- Tokyngton
- Walthamstow Forest
- Washington
- Wembley Central
- Wembley Park Estate
- Widmore
- Willesden Green
- Woodlands, Hounslow
England: Central London · East London · East Midlands · East of England · M25 Fringe · North East · North East London · North London · North West · North West London · South East · South East London · South London · South West · South West London · West London · West Midlands · Yorkshire
Scotland: Scotland
Wales: Wales
Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland
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Get tax planning for a fixed fee
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.