Tax Advisor Recommendations

[Stampy]

I work as the Finance Manager for a medium sized business (Approx. £3million turnover). The business is owned by a husband and wife.

Our current accountants are good in the sense that they competently carry out the bookkeeping and ensure that the business is compliant with all HMRC rules. They also do the accounts for the owners.

Where they are not so good is in the area of actual tax advice - we would want to look for ways to potentially reduce corporation tax but never receive any suggestions on how we might do this (for example I asked if by purchasing vehicles that we currently lease would that help reduce corporation tax - they agreed that it would. But that came from me rather than them).

And on the personal side, we struggle to get advice from them on how to pay the owners in the most tax efficient way possible - we are currently putting everything through PAYE as they kept getting hit with large tax bills each year when paying through dividends.

Could anyone recommend an accountants / tax advisor who might be able to help us in this way?

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

I do think it would be worth a conversation with your accountants before you look elsewhere. It may be that they are happy to provide the type of service you want.

However if you do want to change I'm happy to recommend someone if I can. What does the company do - I ask as some accountants and tax advisors specialise in certain industries / professions and where are you based?

 

[Stampy]

Based in the North East of England. The company has children's homes and is an education provider.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Based in the North East of England. The company has children's homes and is an education provider.

Unfortunately I dont have any contacts in the North East or know another accountant who specialises in acting for clients providing those services. Hopefully someone else here can help,

 

[WaveJumper]

I think first I would sit down and have a "formal" meeting about what services the current accountants can provide and what you are looking for. I am just guessing but it could be the owners are only getting what I would call a "basic package" of support. make it clear what you are looking for, it might cost more, it might be they actually have other expertise on site, or like if they don't know they certainly work closely with others who do

 

[Lisa Thomas]

I can recommend someone if you don't find someone on here - feel free to dm me.

 

[KAC]

We always used Jerry Craggs, based in Leeds https://www.craggsco.co.uk/contact/
Rubbish website because they don't need to advertise

 

[numbersrule]

I would second what the others have said - your existing Accountants should be the first port of call.

This sounds like it might be a classic case of the Business having been signed up to a clearly defined yet limited service. Unless you formally request a quote for the additional services you really need then the Accountants may seem unhelpful.

As an example, you mention personal tax advice for the owners, but that might not be part of the current defined scope. As WaveJumper has said get them round a table and start a dialogue.

 

[FreddyG]

If we have a special problem, we get our accountants to write a short essay on the subject - they have a store of hundreds (possibly thousands) of essays on all sorts of off-the-wall subjects they can draw from. The cost is usually about £100-£200, so an extremely reasonable service.

But my first reaction to the initial question - how to minimise personal drawings from the company - would be to set up an operation outside the UK and for the company to buy tax-free assets outside the UK, such as social housing in Germany, farmland in France, that sort of thing.