As a business owner, you will find that few things in your line of work are as precious as your time. Many people come to us asking for help with tasks that usually result in time slipping through their fingers, because of their often-onerous nature to the layman. If that rings true with you, it might be time to consider outsourcing some of that work outside of your expertise to give yourself back the time you need. Here are some accounting tasks you should consider outsourcing and why.
Company Secretary Services
‘Company secretarial’ doesn’t mean answering calls and managing your appointments for you; this service ensures corporate governance, administration and compliance with legislation, laws and regulations that govern companies. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Company Secretary Advisory
- Registered Office
- Company Statutory Book Review
- Filing of Single Forms
- Confirmation Statement Filing
- Incorporation of New Company
- One-off Project Work
- Entity Winding-Up Process
By outsourcing these responsibilities to our experienced team, you ensure your incorporated business is following sound business practices and fulfilling your legal obligations.
At Knowles Warwick we offer a reliable and highly efficient Company Secretary Service, to help your business avoid late filing penalties and ensure your statutory books are always up to date. We will take over the administrative burden, allowing you to concentrate on other aspects of your business.
Bookkeeping
The first rule of running a successful business is to keep accurate books. By this, we mean records of all your transactions, assets and debts.
Doing this means you’ll know precisely how much customers owe, how much you owe to suppliers, how profitable your business is and how much cash is available. This enables you to make better decisions that can lead to improvements in cashflow and profitability.
We can relieve you and your staff of an enormous burden by taking care of all your bookkeeping needs, giving you peace of mind that your finances are under control.
Payroll
Running payroll eats up large chunks of time each month, with many processes involved to comply with legislation and pay workers on time.
Many of the UK’s medium and large-sized employers have their own in-house human resourcing teams that take care of payroll. But for many small firms, those with 49 or fewer workers, removing this burden by outsourcing your payroll can free up time and resources.
Payroll responsibilities include:
Making deductions
Whether you pay your workers weekly or monthly, certain deductions need to be made from their gross pay packets. These include:
- Income tax
- Workplace pension contributions
- National insurance contributions (NICs)
- Student loan repayments
Auto-enrolment
If you have any staff who are aged 22 or over and earn more than £10,000 a year, they need to be automatically enrolled into your workplace pension scheme. Eligible employees must commit at least 5% of their pay packet, while you must contribute a minimum of 3% into their workplace pensions. However, workers can voluntarily opt out.
Taxable benefits
Each taxable employee benefit you provide to reward or incentivise employees is calculated differently and can be taxed through payroll, assuming you registered with HMRC before the start of the tax year on 6 April. If you failed to meet that registration deadline, P11D and P11D(b) forms might need to be submitted to the tax authority for any member of staff who received taxable benefits.
This helps HMRC calculate how much you need to pay in class 1A employer NICs, as well as how much PAYE tax is due from the employee on the benefit. This is then normally collected from the employee by adjusting their tax code.
Tax Affairs
There’s no legal obligation to appoint someone to take care of your tax returns, but it’s often better to outsource it unless you fully understand your tax obligations and the penalties regime.
What’s more, the Government is in the midst of digitising all of the UK’s major taxes. Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT is already in play, MTD for income tax is due to take effect from April 2024, followed by MTD for corporation tax in April 2026 at the earliest. That means you will soon need to implement MTD-compliant software in your business if you haven’t already done so, regardless of whether you are liable for income tax, corporation tax or UK VAT.
Self-assessment
If you’re self-employed, you need to file a tax return via self-assessment on or before midnight on 31 January each year. This is also the date by which you need to pay your tax bill.
Corporate tax
If you run an incorporated business, you will need to file a company tax return and pay corporation tax on any profits your company makes in its accounting period.
Outsourcing your company tax return will help you to save time and money while ensuring you comply with HMRC’s requirements.
VAT
All businesses with annual taxable turnover of more than £85,000 in the last 12 months need to register for UK VAT, and charge VAT on any sales of goods or services.
This is a complex area of our tax system. Knowles Warwick can help you choose the most suitable payment scheme, and manage your returns in line with MTD for VAT.
There is no shame in looking to lighten the load within your business. Whether you’re self-employed, a business owner or you simply want to improve your personal tax efficiency, our comprehensive range of services could help you to achieve your goals.
Contact us today for an obligation-free meeting and don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn for daily business and tax news.
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