Insights

For many professionals, spearheading their own business is the ideal long-term objective. Working for yourself, and for your clients, is always an enjoyable experience. However, when setting up your own company, it pays to be vigilant with regards to paying yourself. There are a few options that you could use to pay yourself and ensure you can earn a living from your business. In this article, we’ll look at:
Paying yourself as a business owner
Salary or draw? What’s the best option?
PAYE and dividends
Making the right decision for your business

When running a limited company, you should take into consideration what pension contributions you can make. While finding tax deductible expenses that you can legitimately claim can feel like a challenge, pensions as a business expense are both justifiable and worthwhile. By contributing to a pension plan, you can find several beneficial tax advantages. Not only that, but pensions in a limited company will it help you to protect your long-term future. In this article, we’ll cover:
Why you should set up pension contributions
Pensions in a limited company
Pensions as a business expense: is this allowed?
Getting help setting up your pension fund

At regular intervals, a pension deductions increase will come into place. Other times, though, this may decrease. However, this year, we’re expected to see a significant increase in the amount of money being deducted from pay to go towards your pension. These new pension increases can be confusing, so we’ve tried to cover everything you’ll need to know. This includes:
What are pension deductions?
Why are pension deductions put in place?
Why do pension deductions change?
How should I deal with pension deduction increases?
Benefiting from a pension deductions increase

With the 2018/19 tax year end just around the corner, it’s important that you take advantage of your tax-free dividend allowance. If you haven’t yet made use of dividends as a way of drawing money from your company, then you are running out of time to do so for this tax year. In this article we will look at:
Using your £2,000 dividend allowance
How does your dividend allowance work with your personal allowance?
Can you pay your dividend out of profits and losses?
Getting the help that you need when handling the tax year end

When running a company, it’s possible to have surplus cash left over at the end of a year. With regards to a private limited company, you might not be sure how to best use that money. However, there are many things to bear in mind about making it work to your advantage, such as the impact any decision might have on tax. In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at what you could do with surplus cash in your company. What is surplus cash, exactly? And how can you put it to good use? In this article, we’ll cover:
What is surplus cash?
Dealing with surplus cash appropriately
Investing your surplus cash in bonds and shares
Buying and renting properties
Pension contributions from a cash surplus
Establishing a retirement company
Distributing it to shareholders as dividends
Making the right choice

In our previous article we looked ways in which you can make the most of any surplus cash held in your business. Following on from that, we want to look at another tax allowance which is available to sole traders or partners and even company directors: Entrepreneurs’ Relief. If you have built up significant retained profits or have seen a rise in the valuation of assets in your business, you might wish to use Entrepreneurs’ Relief to your advantage, now or in the future. The rules for this are changing – so how does it work? In this article, we’ll cover:
What is Entrepreneurs’ Relief?
Rule changes announced in the 2018 Autumn Budget
Will Entrepreneurs’ Relief on the sale of EMI shares be affected?
Should you use Entrepreneurs’ Relief for winding up?
Making the right decision

Following announcements made in the Autumn Budget 2018, changes were set out for the new tax year starting on the 6th April 2019. It’s important to understand what these new tax rules are so you can adjust accordingly. A failure to take into account increases or decreases in tax rates and thresholds could mean miscalculating your expected tax bill in the future. This article will break down key tax amendments for the 2019/20 tax year, including:
What changes are taking place regarding Personal Taxes?
Income Tax allowances and thresholds for 2019/20
Capital Gains Tax annual exemption
Business Tax adjustments to take note of
Charity Tax rules to prepare for
Finding out how tax changes in 2019/20 impact you

For any business owner, selecting the right accounting software is a key decision. Having control of your books and access to timely financial data is essential for a modern business. With such a range of packages to choose from, knowing where to start can be somewhat confusing. In this article we will break down important points to consider when looking at your choice of accountancy software. This includes:
Selecting accounting software based on your needs
Picking cloud accounting software
Is your accounting software MTD compliant?
Keeping your budget in mind
Other things to consider
Making a choice on accounting software