Accountants Winchester

Small Business Accountants in Winchester

As a business owner the tax and accounting obligations can sometimes feel overwhelming. As fully qualified Chartered Accountants this is where we can help. We work with a wide variety of small businesses in Winchester to help them get on top of their accounting and tax requirements. We also help optimise the tax affairs of small businesses to keep them tax efficient.

Our Winchester Accountants do this by combining their years of experience and expertise to provide you with an accounting & tax service that you can trust and rely on.

Whether it’s speaking to HMRC on your behalf, preparing and filing your VAT return, or setting up a payroll for you and your employees, we can help. We don’t believe in clients paying by the hour, we agree all fees in advance on a fixed fee basis which includes meetings, telephone and email support.

What is a small business?

In the UK, a small business is classed as any business with less than £10m of turnover and no more than 50 employees. This means that the vast majority of UK businesses are in fact classed as small!

Yet most Winchester business owners we talk to don’t refer to their company as ‘small.’ After all, it’s their business and their livelihood and they’ve put blood, sweat and tears to get it to where it is. From experience, we find that this actually makes most small businesses pretty unique, which is how we treat you.

What Accounting services do we offer for small businesses in Winchester?

Most of the businesses we work with take up one of our accounting packages. These provide all the accounting and tax services required for your business including cloud software, bookkeeping & preparation of VAT returns, payroll, annual accounts, corporation tax returns, management reporting, personal tax returns and tax advisory services.

Not in Winchester? We provide services to businesses in nearby areas including as Accountants Basingstoke and Accountants Guildford.

Limited Company Accountant

The majority of clients we work with operate as Limited companies. A Limited company is a separate legal entity distinct from you and it comes with it’s own unique tax, accounting, and filing requirements. It is required to file corporation tax returns with HMRC and annual statutory accounts with Companies House. Most Limited company Directors prefer to outsource this to a specialist like us, as they are worried about missing deadlines, falling foul of the rules and incurring penalties. This is where our expert accountants can help.

Another important consideration for business owners is how your Limited company is going to pay you. This is normally through a combination of salary and dividends and our tax experts work with Limited company business owners to keep their tax affairs optimised and efficient.

There can be a number of tax benefits of operating through a Limited company but the downside is the increased legal and filing requirements. That’s where we can help, our accounting packages cover everything a Limited company in Winchester needs including end of year accounts, tax returns, director tax returns, VAT and bookkeeping and optimising the company owners tax affairs. This keeps you compliant and helps you to take control of your Limited company tax and accounting affairs.

VAT Accounting

Currently, businesses in the UK with over £85,000 of turnover on a 12-month rolling basis are required to register for VAT. Many businesses who do not breach the VAT threshold of £85,000 often voluntarily choose to register as it enables them to reclaim any VAT charged. However, we recommend taking some advice on this before registering with HMRC.

When you register for VAT you will likely be required to file quarterly VAT returns. These must usually be completed with some sort of software, as VAT returns must be “Making Tax Digital” (MTD) compliant. Registering for VAT will significantly step up your business’s admin and filing requirements, which is where we can help.

Our VAT accountants can assist you with preparing and filing your VAT return. We do this using cloud software like Xero that is fully MTD compliant. This gives you the reassurance with a VAT accounting expert in your corner. There’s another reason you need a VAT accountant though and this is because VAT is complex! Different supplies are charged at different rates, and purchases you make may or may not have VAT charged on them depending on the nature of the goods and services. Most of the businesses we work with prefer to leave this to us and our experienced accountants. They ensure your VAT affairs are compliant whilst also helping to make sure you’re not overpaying.

Bookkeeping Services Winchester

At Raw, we believe bookkeeping services are central to the success of your small business finances. Getting things right at the bookkeeping stage is crucial because done right, it gives you an accurate, timely picture of your business. It shows your financial position in real time.

The trouble is bookkeeping is hardly the most exciting of activities. Bookkeeping is the process of recording a business’s financial transactions. These transactions include things like your sales, purchases, cash payments and receipts, wages and VAT entries. That’s where we can help, our accountants and bookkeepers can help record your business’s transactions and make sure your bookkeeping system is systemised and efficient.

We’ve seen first-hand the impact accurate, timely, bookkeeping has on small businesses. As a service, we think it will have the single biggest effect on improving your overall finance function and putting you back in control. Our small business accounting packages all include bookkeeping as standard freeing you up to get on and run your business and giving you peace of mind that transactions are being accurately recorded.

Cloud Accounting 

Cloud accounting like Xero provides an easy way to capture your business’s financial transactions to help you keep on top of things. It’s best combined with a receipt scanning app like HubDoc which extracts transaction data from invoices and receipts. For a small investment of around £20 per month cloud accounting it’s worth every penny.

We’re certified on a number of cloud accounting packages including Xero & FreeAgent so are well placed to advise you on cloud software setup.

Management reporting

Management accounts give business owners the information and insights they need to make accurate, timely decisions about their business. Making decisions without them is the equivalent of putting a blind fold on to run your business.

At Raw, our experienced accountants can help you to produce management reports that give you the information you need. Our management reports track your businesses key finances, along with some non-financial KPI’s to help keep your business on track.

Personal Tax Returns

Personal tax returns are required for those who are self-employed, most Limited company directors taking dividends or those with other sources of income such as landlords with rental properties. As expert accountants and tax advisers we can take the stress away from having to prepare your return, giving you confidence that they have been accurately prepared. We also help to identify all available allowances to optimise your taxes and reduce how much you have to pay HMRC.