Another year another tax bill

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Another year another tax bill
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jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 11:40 am Post subject: Another year another tax bill

Just got back from the yearly accountant visit, and it does turn out we have enough money in the business to pay the tax this year

Anyone else here who dreads this aspect of running a small business? I really do not want to be worrying about what the tax bill will be, and last year beacause our car conked out, we took out more money than we wanted to, hence I spent the last few months wondering if we were in for bad news.

jema

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45712
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 11:43 am Post subject:
Tax is the worst thing a small business has to deal with, part of the reason why there's such a large black economy in my opinion

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 11:46 am Post subject:
I was at one point VAT registered and got clobbered for a substantial bill I didn't think I owed. But it was immedietly plain that trying to contest it would be extremely hard. They have so many powers to make your life a miserly jema

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45712
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 11:55 am Post subject:
For anybody that doesn't know Customs & Excise (& the revenue) have more powers than the police. We got clobbered by a tax demand about 10 years ago that implied we were underdeclaring by around 15%, �10,000's you have to pay first argue later, it took us 11 months and � 25,000 legal fees to get the refund and damages awarded, we had to take legal action before they finally paid up.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 12:03 pm Post subject:
Ouch In my case the amount was more like �1000 than �10,000s and hence given the powers that they have, it was clearly simply as case of having to pay up and forget it. jema

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 3:21 pm Post subject:

I have also found accountants can be a waste of time if you don't get a good one. They do make mistakes and when something goes wrong they never seem accountable.

There may be good ones out there but the people I know who are happy with their accountant often tend to be related to them.

Like most tax, if it was made simpler then more people could run their own
company and not have to pay an accountant and they could easily pay the tax that the owe. Surely a Government supplied software package for companies with a turnover up to a certain level would solve many problems. This would, of course, mean there would be less work for accountants, less inspectors and less people would overpay tax.

Then along comes things like section 660 where even two of the Governments own senior tax inspectors cannot reach the same decision, even after spending many months and thousands of pounds of tax payers money. Please don't even mention IR35....

twoscoops

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1924
Location: Warwickshire

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 3:26 pm Post subject:
This all sounds awful. How can you be sure of choosing a good accountant?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45712
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 3:28 pm Post subject:
It's usually best to go on someone's recommendation

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 3:56 pm Post subject:
Yep go on a recommendation My accountant was saying this morning how absurdly complicated tx is getting and no two inpsecter agree on how the rules now work jema

twoscoops

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1924
Location: Warwickshire

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 3:56 pm Post subject:
I'll talk to my neighbour, he runs his own business. I may have found a shop to buy. Yippee!

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45712
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 4:05 pm Post subject:
Good news

Sarah D

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 2584

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 4:11 pm Post subject:
Is it the one you have been trying to buy for a while?

twoscoops

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1924
Location: Warwickshire

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 04 4:23 pm Post subject:
Sadly not. Much smaller but quite nice anyway.

mbeirnes

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 100

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 9:34 pm Post subject:
I think that tax is one of lifes black arts....... One minute your fine next in jail Having been self employed for about ten years I know how you feel one of the reasons i went permie was coz I couldnt be bothered. I do however know a good accountant in Leeds and the only other advise is get one near you so if you have a panic you can see him f2f

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 04 11:03 pm Post subject:

Twoscoops wrote:

Sadly not. Much smaller but quite nice anyway.

I wish you the very best of luck. Will you be stocking my expensive air freighted crab?

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