When to Hire an Accountant for Small Business ?

There are lot of challenges faced by small business owners to start a business and priority is to save as much as possible specially in first year of trading. In different stages of your company growth you going to need an Accountant. An Accountant can help you from business plan to company formation, loan application to tax investigation etc. It does not mean you need to employ an accountant full or part time. You can hire accounting services on one off basis. It does not have to be a costly process. Sometimes few hours of their time will be enough.

Can I afford an Accountant ?

Lot of small business owners think they can not afford an accountant. S K Punia Accountants are very affordable accountants, we do not bind you into monthly contract. We do not charge you prices like high street accountant. We are on your side.

Take an example, lets say you try to file your Self assessment taxes, think about how long will it take you to do the tax return filling of accounts and how long will it take to work out the exemption ? Let say you paid around £50.00 to get a software to file your return and spend around 6 hours.

Instead of doing your tax return, you contracted S K Punia Accountant, we charged you £180.00. On £180.00 will be tax deductible expenses which means you will save 20% tax and 9% national insurance which comes to around £52.00 saving plus you will not be paying for software cost which is another £50.00 saving. Overall saving of £102.00 in Monterey value plus saving of your 6 hours. S K Punia Accountants are expert in the exemptions and will be able to save further money plus you saved your time, hassle

and peace of mind that an expert is taking care of the details.

Can an Accountant advice me of my company's legal structure ?

There are different types of company structures. Limited company, limited liability partnerships, sole traders and Limited by guarantees.

It can be hard to decide what sort of structure you require. Accountants are in best position to suggest or guide you through selection of company structure.

You should be careful when considering which one best suits you. It can be a very costly mistake to correct it. Tax is charged differently on different company structure. Once you registered you company, you will be registering with other organisation with same name, If later on you decide to change the company structure, it can amount to hundreds of pounds to reregister under different name with other organisations.

Limited companies pay corporation tax where as sole trader or self employed pays income tax. Ltd companies need to file to company house and HMRC where as sole trader/self employed only file to HMRC. As a sole trader you might be able to offset some of your living expenses against tax. limited company you can offset donations amount where as you can not offset in self employed/sole trader.

Sole traders personal assets are at risk can be used to cover the liability of business.

In ltd company if you fails to pay loan or supplier or lose a lawsuit, creditor could not come after your house or other possessions. It is very important to chose the right structure of your business.

Hire an accountant when you are ready to pass on accounting duties to an expert

It is wonderful for Small business owners to have control. It is good to have your own working hours, regulate your workload and determine your own finances.

Trying to control everything can feel overworked. You might feel no one possibly can understand your business better or as well as you do, therefore nobody can handle any part of your business.

Inability to pass on duties on other mean you will feel overworked and stressed. There is a saying 'Team work is dream work'. You will not have enough time to grow your business. You have to trust other people to handle some parts of your business so you can have time to grow your small business to multi million company.

Delegating your company's accounting duties is a good start. You have to chose the right accountant and make sure you trust them with your company's finances.

Once you delegated the company accounting duties to an accountant who have more experienced in accountancy than you, you will get more time to concentrate on growing your business.

Hire an accountant when you you have to deal with the government

Limited company accounts require statuary filling and are more complex. It is good to get an accountant who will files:

• File your company annual accounts

• File your corporation tax

• File your annual statement

• File your Quarterly VAT return

• Handle your payroll and file RTI return and Pension

Good accountant can help your prepare your tax documents correctly and could save you money perhaps more money than your accountant charges you. Accountant such as S K Punia Accountant use their knowledge of tax laws and legislation to save on tax and free up cash flow and raise capital for expansion of your firm.