Welcome to new and existing readers to my blog.

Please be aware the below blog is older than 12 months, therefore the information may not be relevant or up to date.

To save you time, this article is aimed at business owners who are approaching their business’ year end.  If you don’t run you own business, then the article will have limited benefit to you. I suggest you might want to ‘move on’ to reading something more relevant and pertinent to you.  You might, however, find something of interest.  Whether you read on or move on, thank you for your time.

If you have decided to read on, I am guessing you might run your own business, on your own, or with a partner or shareholders.  As a business owner, I know the competing demands running a business has on my time (the most valuable, scarce, and irreplaceable resource) and my finances.

Approaching your company’s year-end is a challenging time. There are the ever-present challenges of profitability, cashflow, and (getting and keeping) customers.  Often, business owners can be too close to the tree to see the wood, let alone the forest!  What is essential, however, is to take the time to review, plan and take advantage of the significant tax breaks available to us as owners for the future of our business and us as individuals.

Our personal and business finances are inextricably linked, one being dependent on the other. There are many time limited allowances available to us as business owners and as individuals.  Being time limited, if we do not take advantage of them, and we have to consciously do so, the tax man will not offer them up again, we will lose them.

For example, some of the questions you may want to consider include before your business’ year end include:
•    Should you make a company pension contribution or take the income and pay a personal pension contribution?
•    Should you pay yourself a bonus (and do you pay the tax on the bonus and leave the money in your loan account for cashflow) or a dividend?
•    What capital investments do you need to make and what allowances do you need to use?

The answers to these questions will have an effect on your overall financial planning, your mortgage planning and your pension planning. All of these have an effect on your financial future.

My advice would be to take the time now to review and assess your business’ and your personal financial position.  This will help you determine which allowances are available to you and how best to use them, not only for today but also for tomorrow.

We work with our clients, and their other professional advisers, to help them through the maze of choices.  Often, significant gains and improvements can be achieved by changing existing arrangements and plans, without starting new plans.

If you’d like to learn more, please get in touch, and remember I will always stand the cost of our first meeting.

Thank you again for reading, I hope to speak to you soon but please do take the time to act.  You might lose out and your future self might regret not taking action now.

Tax treatment varies according to individual circumstances and is subject to change.