Year-end tax planning

By Daniel Morgan, Managing Partner, Haines Watts Esher

For many business owners year-end is the point that they meet with their accountant to review the business profits and receive their tax bill. However, a review of your tax position before your year-end is a prime time to look to introduce efficiencies and understand if your tax strategy is allowing you to meet both your personal and business goals.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A PRE YEAR-END MEETING? I tend to meet with my clients around two months before their year-end, the key is to have this meeting at a time where you can accurately predict the business’s profi ts for the year but also allow time for changes to be implemented.

There are always some basics that we need to ensure are sorted such as pension contributions. These need to be paid before the year-end for a corporate tax deduction.

It’s also benefi cial to discuss a longterm plan with a roadmap for both the company as well as your personal position. In order to do this we discuss what goals they have and a timeframe of when they’d like to achieve them. We can then make sure their tax strategy for the year ahead is supporting these goals. CHANGING PRIORITIES Following the challenges of the past year the goals of many of my clients have changed and therefore their tax strategy needs to change as well. The subject of exit and lifestyle have come up regularly. In some cases the pandemic has sped up these plans and so we are looking at implementing a low risk tax strategy that is really solid in order to appeal to potential buyers.

On the flip side I also have clients that were planning exit by a certain age but can now see themselves working longer. They were going full throttle with long hours in the office away from their families. The pandemic has changed the way they work allowing them more fl exibility and the ability to work remotely. Some clients have even begun planning to spend a few months abroad each year which has dramatically reduced the risk of burnout.

Of course all these changes in how and where you work can have a knock on effect on your tax position which is why it is so important to discuss your plans with your advisor.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE As well as looking at the effi ciencies that can be made in the current tax year I also aim to look ahead with my clients. Succession planning and passing down wealth has become a big priority so getting everything in order in terms of wills, inheritance tax and life insurance has become a big part of the longer term planning.

National insurance and tax on dividends is set to increase from 2022 so it could be worthwhile looking at how you extract wealth from the business. This may mean taking dividends during this tax year if it won’t have a knock on effect on the business, and longer term looking at whether your current method is still the most tax effi cient.