Changing your accountant is simple. All you need to do once you have decided to use Lesstax 4 U as your Accountant, you must provide us with your previous accountant’s details (email address or phone number), and we will do the rest.

We work on a fixed fee basis. Fees will be agreed upon during your initial consultation and outlined in the letter of engagement. You will never be charged additional fees unless you ask for an additional service to be carried out as will be outlined in the letter of engagement.

If your business is very small, purchasing bookkeeping software is not a requirement. Alternatively, we can provide you with a template to record your transactions or you can outsource your bookkeeping with us.

However, if your business is larger or handles a large number of transactions, we recommend that you do have bookkeeping software. There are several low-cost cloud-based software products available – please contact us and we can discuss this further.

If your business turnover exceeds the VAT registration threshold you are required by law to register, or you can voluntarily register before your business exceeds the registration threshold if it is beneficial for your business.

Even if you have only one employee or you are a sole Director employee, you should be registered for PAYE with HMRC and make monthly RTI submissions.

The structure of your new business depends on many factors including the size of your business and profitability. These determine whether there are tax advantages to being set up a particular way. There are also other pros and cons across the different structures. We will take you through the pros, cons, and ongoing filing and tax implications to help you decide the ideal format for you.

The tax year runs from 6th April to 5th April in the following year, and you must file your tax return on or before 31 January following the end of the tax and pay any tax and NI due. You may also have to make a payment on account on 31 January and 31 July following the tax year if your tax liability is more than £1,000.

The requirements to comply with HMRC regulations are generally that you must pay your Corporation Tax bill within 9 months of the end of your financial year, and then file your Company Tax Return within 12 months of the end of your financial year. Failure to do so will result in a financial penalty.

All UK-registered private limited companies are required to file their financial statement no longer than 9 months after the end of their financial year – failure to do so will result in a financial penalty.

You are only entitled to a refund from HMRC if you pay too much tax during the tax year. If you are an employee you don’t need to do anything HMRC will contact you but if you are a sole trader, you must prepare your tax return to claim any refund for those under CIS. Our job is to help you get every penny that HMRC owes you.

The vehicle must be owned by the company for you to claim the expenses on the running cost and you can claim capital allowance for the cost of the vehicle. 

If the vehicle is not owned by the company you can only claim business mileage which will reduce the company profits, and therefore the amount of tax you pay at the end of the year. In short, claiming business miles is good news for you and your company.

The government allows you to claim up to a certain rate per mile, depending on your mode of transport. These are known as authorise mileage rate and this will consider the general running costs of your car like maintenance and insurance. As a company director if you cycle to and from work, you will find mileage expenses especially beneficial - you can claim 20p per mile without incurring the fuel and insurance costs of your car-driving counterparts.

All business mileage must be recorded on a standard form (although no proof of the journey is required, unlike other allowable expenses). If you claim at or below HMRC’s published rates there is no tax to pay. However, if you are paid at a rate higher than allowed by HMRC then you must report the difference reported each year on your P11D.

Here are the rates (per mile) allowed by HMRC:

Mode of transport         First 10,000 miles          Over 10,000 miles

Car/van                                 £0.45                                          £0.25

Motorcycles                         £0.24                                          £0.24

Bikes                                     £0.20                                          £0.20

The same rates apply for sole traders, except when it comes to cycling. HMRC do not allow business mileage to be claimed by sole traders using a bicycle, which is rather unfortunate for those green-minded among you, or even cycle couriers. However, you may be able to claim the costs of buying a bicycle for work and consumables such as tyres or maintenance. Any personal use of the bicycle is likely to reduce the amount you can claim. It’s best to speak to an accountant or your local tax office to confirm what you can claim.

We don’t recommend claiming for business use on a personal mobile phone contract. Most mobile phone tariffs provide ‘bundles’ of calls and data usage. It’s very difficult to evidence how the business and personal parts of your usage are split to HMRC.

To claim tax relief on your mobile phone or landline telephone expenses, you’ll need to ensure that a contract is set up between your limited company and the service provider. This way you can gain tax relief on the cost of the phone and its use.

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Our opening hours are Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. However, if you cannot visit during these hours, we can arrange by appointment to visit you out of hours. We can also speak with you via telephone out-of-hours if this suits you better.