Taxman Starts Business Records Check

Newsletter issue - March 2011.

The Taxman is concerned that many small businesses are not keeping adequate records to support the entries on their tax returns. To encourage better record keeping he is taking a carrot and stick approach.

The carrot encouragement comes in the form of a number of new HMRC leaflets, and an online tool www.businesslink.gov.uk/recordkeepingcheck designed to help small businesses decide what records they must keep. These tools and leaflets contain quite a lot of jargon words and phrases, so we would recommend discussing your requirements with us.

The stick is a letter he is about to send to 50,000 small businesses, advising that they may be subject to a detailed records check.

Only a minority of these businesses will actually receive a visit from the Tax Office compliance check unit, and those visits will normally be arranged in advance. However, if your business is visited and your records are found to be inadequate you may receive a penalty of up to £3,000, which cannot be suspended even if you promise to keep better records in future.

What our clients say about us...

  • "Paul has provided accountancy services to my company for 2 years now. I can recommend Paul very highly; his skills as an accountant are highly detailed and professional and he is always available to provide advice. One aspect of the way Paul works that I greatly appreciate is a preference to meet face to face when there is a detailed conversation to be had. I personally find this more productive and is a benefit of working with a small accountancy firm that you wouldn't get with the large faceless providers."

    ALISTAIR FAIRWEATHER - PROGRAMME & PROJECT MANAGER, DELIVERING/RESCUING I.T. 7 BUSINESS CHANGE WITH BUDGETS UPTO £50M INC SUPPIER MANAGEMENT

  • "I couldn't ask for more from Paul as an Accountant. Paul has been accountant to Work Relief Charity Recruitment for just over a year now and is proving an invaluable asset. Accurate, knowledgeable, flexible with an emphasis on service delivery, I would recommend Paul's services to any organisation looking for an accounts professional."

    Neil Price - Managing Director at Work Relief Charity Recruitment

  • "Paul was a referral from a family member when I started my business 2 years ago. As this was the first time I had ever run my own company I was totally clueless over the financial side of matters and was worried that I may have made mistakes in any of my accounting. I needn't have worried as after enaging Paul for a set monthly fee he was always there on the end of the phone for all sorts of questions I had and no matter how trivial they were Paul gave me all the information I required and more and did an excellent and painless job at the end of my first year! Couldn't ask for any better to be honest. Just two words - hire him!!!"

    Lee Westrap MBCS - Director - Bulldog IT Services

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Booth & Co  |   The Hermitage  |   15a Shenfield Road  |   Brentwood  |   Essex  |   CM15 8AG        Telephone: 01277 224666    |   Email: info@boothandco.co.uk