Our Services
Accounts preparation
Organisations need accounts. We prepare accounts. What could be simpler? It does not matter whether you are a sole trader, a partnership, a limited company, a charity, club or a more specialist organisation, we can help.
We add value is that as well as preparing the accounts for statutory or taxation purposes, we will explain them to you in a straight forward manner. This helps you understand what they really mean, whether there are any warning signs and what is improving or worsening - we help you to use the accounts to plan for the future of your business.
Audit
We are registered to carry out audit work by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and as such we are required to have high technical standards. However standards are only part of the story, we have the audit experience that covers from the smallest charity to National Government – and we cover most of the stops in between! The number of registered auditors has fallen in recent years as fewer companies need formal audits however we have taken a deliberate decision to continue to provide audit services as we feel that some of our clients still need these.
Taxation
“Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. While we cannot help on the former, we can certainly do something with the latter. We do not believe in blinding you with science or baffling you with bullshit! We try and explain things simply. We will let you know how much is going to be payable and when it is due. We deal with personal tax, business tax, company tax, residence matters, seafarers tax, capital gains tax and numerous others.
We will also help you plan your affairs to minimise your tax liability. This does not mean complicated, non commercial, tax avoidance schemes but straight forward, common sense ways of organising your affairs to best tax effect.
The UK tax system is extremely complex and, while we have the experience and expertise to handle most matters which affect individuals or companies, we do not know everything. We therefore we have the back up of access to highly experienced, specialist consultants if a particular matter is outwith our areas of expertise.
VAT
What was originally announced as “A simple tax” is not! It is mind bogglingly complex. Not only that, but the consequences of getting it wrong can be extremely expensive. However planning for VAT and getting it right can benefit you enormously. That is where we come in.
We help clients with VAT either on the compliance side by preparing their VAT returns for them, or on the advisory side e.g. advising whether or not to register, when to register, whether a special scheme could apply, which scheme to use and so on.
Payroll
There is only one rule in payroll – “Get it right” – not “close enough” but “right”. That is what we do. We provide a payroll service tailored to suit your needs whether these be weekly or monthly. We produce employees’ payslips, payroll summaries and will lodge your annual payroll return electronically. We will also advise how much to pay to HM Revenue and Customs and can arrange the BACS payments for your payroll. We will prepare the form P11D for benefits and expenses on your behalf if required.
We advise on the various aspects of payroll, SSP, SMP, notice, redundancy, holiday pay and the related complexities.
Tax investigations
Through no fault of their own, clients can be subjected to an enquiry into their tax affairs. Unfortunately these are stressful, worrying, time consuming, intrusive and expensive – and that is even if HM Revenue and Customs decide that there is no problem with your records. We can deal with much of any enquiry on your behalf reducing the strain on you and minimising the possibility of “saying the wrong thing”.
As an additional service we offer all clients, through Abbey Tax Protection, an insurance-backed tax investigation service. This service is entirely discretionary but should a client subscribe to this service, our fees incurred in dealing with a full enquiry are covered by this policy as are fees in defence of VAT and PAYE disputes; a free legal advice helpline is also provided.