Services
Our expertise and experience is invaluable to all types of businesses, ranging from self employed individuals through to multi-million pound companies.
We offer a complete range of accounting, auditing, taxation and advisory services but regardless of your size, our philosophy remains the same, to deliver a premium service whilst remaining approachable and competitively priced.
Accounts Preparation
For sole traders and partnerships, accounts form the basis of the self assessment tax return whilst for companies or limited liability partnerships the preparation of accounts is a statutory requirement.
Whatever your circumstances, your accounts are the starting point for us to evaluate your performance so that we can guide you through your figures and help you to understand what is important and what the results mean to you.
Our clients come in all shapes and sizes and the same can be said for their accounting records. Our service is therefore tailored to your needs but feedback is also an important part of our role. If we can provide guidance on record keeping that will help to reduce our fees or the tax due, then we will advise accordingly.
Regardless of where we start, our end result is a professionally prepared set of accounts with an accountants’ report attached, adding credibility and providing reassurance. There are three options for the report that we attach:
Compilation Report
This is the traditional accountants report attached to unaudited accounts. This is sufficient for most clients and applies where we have compiled the accounts from our clients’ books and records.
Assurance Report
This is a new option which provides clients with a greater degree of assurance over the figures in their accounts. The work involved is not as rigorous as with a statutory audit but is more involved than a compilation report. We recommend this service to all of our clients who do not require an audit but would like to add greater credibility to their accounts.
Audit Report
Companies with turnover in excess of £6.5m or charities with turnover in excess of £500,000, amongst other criteria, require an audit. However many of our clients below that threshold voluntarily undergo an audit. The scope and nature of a statutory audit is significant, find out more about our audit services.
Audit
For many clients an annual audit may be a statutory obligation but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a useful exercise for all organisations, even those that are exempt from the requirement.
We spend a great deal of time with our audit clients and we make good use of the thorough knowledge and understanding we gain about their businesses.
With thorough planning and assessment of risk we can reduce the disruption to your business significantly, allowing us plenty of time to consider areas of your business where improvements could be made.
Our audit team have been making good use of automated audit procedures for many years now, leading the way in the 1990s when such procedures were revolutionary. This efficient and cost effective approach continues to dominate the way in which we tackle audit assignments, enabling us to keep audit clients up to date with the ever changing guidance and regulation.
Bookkeeping
More and more clients now like us to be more involved in their accounts with regular assistance throughout the year, leaving them to get on with what they do best.
We have a dedicated bookkeeping department which can take care of all aspects of bookkeeping, whether this is large volume processing outsourced by large businesses or simple record keeping for small businesses who appreciate that bookkeeping is not their strong point.
Typically we provide monthly or quarterly management information so that business performance can be monitored on a regular basis. At the same time we prepare and submit the VAT return.
Our rates for bookkeeping, VAT and payroll are extremely competitive and in most cases lead to a reduction in the annual accounts and tax return fee.
VAT
VAT is unavoidable for all but the smallest of businesses and is perhaps the most complex area of tax that many clients have to face.
There are a number of VAT schemes available and we constantly review our clients’ businesses to ensure they are operating the scheme most beneficial to them.
Regular VAT returns are prepared by our dedicated bookkeeping department but we also provide assistance with VAT returns to clients who maintain their own accounts.
We have a VAT specialist to advise on non-routine transactions and complex areas, particularly relevant to overseas trading, property and charities.
Payroll
PAYE and National Insurance are areas that few clients are comfortable with. Our dedicated bookkeeping department handle the payroll for a wide range of organisations from small companies and charities through to large employers with complex salary structures.
Weekly or monthly payroll support ensures that employees are paid accurately and that HMRC deadlines are met and penalties avoided.
We provide clients with printed pay slips on a weekly or monthly basis that are sealed securely if posting is necessary.
With electronic filing now mandatory for many organisations we find that clients are more than happy to outsource their payroll function, particularly given the competitiveness of our payroll fees.
Self Assessment Income Tax
Whether you are self employed or are required to submit a tax return because you receive other income, income tax remains an extremely complex area.
We have seen a dramatic shift in recent years with the introduction of mandatory electronic filing of tax returns. Whilst we have made good use of this technology since its introduction some years ago, the Government continues to encourage individuals to “have a stab at it” themselves.
A significant amount of our personal tax work arises because of mistakes made by taxpayers when submitting their own tax returns online. Errors usually come to light when an unexpected tax demand arrives, or worse still, a penalty notice.
Our highly experienced personal tax department have built up a thorough understanding of the UK tax system and this knowledge must be updated regularly to keep up with the continually changing world of personal tax.
With the inevitable increase in the amount of tax that needs to be collected in the coming years our clients look to us to ensure that they pay the right amount of tax and not a penny more.
With new, higher rates of personal tax and the phasing out of personal allowances for high earners we are constantly advising clients on efficient tax mitigation strategies.
Corporation Tax
Corporation tax is a complex area and this will only be exacerbated by the mandatory requirement for corporation tax returns to be filed electronically in the near future.
Our highly trained tax specialists are able to advise on a wide range of corporate tax issues including R&D tax credits, an area that HM Revenue & Customs are keen to promote.
A key area where we advise owner managed businesses is the adoption of an appropriate remuneration policy. The debate over whether or not to become a limited company continues to rage on and a thorough understanding of the overall tax position of the company and its shareholders is vital.
Capital Gains Tax
Whilst the calculation of capital gains tax for individuals has been simplified in recent years, the availability and choice of reliefs and mitigation techniques has not.
We have a specialist capital gains tax advisor within Tax Services who is able to offer advice on a wide range of capital gains tax issues including second homes and principal private residence relief, letting relief, entrepreneurs’ relief, holdover relief to name but a few.
Professional advice should be sought on capital gains at an early stage to ensure the tax due is mitigated as much as possible. In many cases the interaction with inheritance tax means that careful planning is essential.
Inheritance Tax
The recent changes to the nil rate band for married couples was a welcome update to inheritance tax law. However, inheritance tax continues to be an extremely complex matter and professional advice is essential.
Our Inheritance Tax specialist within Tax Services is able to advise on all matters relevant to estate planning including business property and agricultural property relief, discretionary trusts and other trust and estate issues.
The close interaction of inheritance tax with capital gains tax means that a well planned strategy is required and our specialist knowledge will become invaluable.
Start Up Businesses
A substantial part of our work involves advising owners of new businesses. Almost all of them are overwhelmed by the number of issues they need to address. These include:
- Limited company or self employed?
- Dividend or salary?
- VAT registration
- PAYE scheme registration
- National Insurance contributions
- Treatment of husband and wife companies
These are all areas where we help our clients. If you are thinking of starting a new business or have recently done so please contact us to discuss these matters.
We will not charge for the meeting nor will you be obliged to use Chapman Worth in the future.
Other Specialist Services
There are many other areas where we are able to offer advice. Please contact us to discuss more specialist matters such as:
- Due diligence
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Business valuations
- Computer accounting systems
- Forensic and investigative work
