When it comes to tax, your accountant can perform two very important roles for your business. Firstly, they can carry out the vital compliance work that needs to be done for your business to meet its legal obligations. They can prepare its accounts and, depending on the structure of your business, file self-assessment tax returns, corporation tax returns, employer returns and CIS returns (if your business is in the construction industry) with HMRC. If your business is a company, they can file annual returns and annual accounts with Companies House.
Secondly, they can provide the following valued-added services:
- Running the payroll of the business
- Structuring an acquisition, merger or business sale in a tax-efficient way and providing due diligence services
- Providing assistance if the business is subject to a tax investigation
- Advising the business owner on matters such as entrepreneur's relief, inheritance tax, non-domiciled taxation and capital gains tax
- Succession planning.
Your accountant may offer fee protection as part of their services. This can be a good financial investment as it means you won't have to fork out a large sum of money on accountancy fees in the event of a tax investigation.