Home / Tax Decisions Your Accountant Won’t Make For You

Tax Decisions Your Accountant Won’t Make For You

Download the free business tax guide

Compliance is not the same as planning, and for most owner-managed businesses the gap between the two costs a five figure amount every year.

Your accountant files. Their job is to make sure the right amounts are paid on time and the books balance at year end. What they typically do not do is plan, not in the deeper sense. How to extract value from the business in the most efficient way, year after year, with your long term wealth picture in view, is not usually their remit. This free e-book walks through the planning side most owners assume their accountant is already doing.

What You Will Walk Away With

By the end of this e-book, you will have a clearer view of where your accountant’s job ends, and where the real tax planning for business owners actually begins:

• A clearer view of the gap between filing your taxes and planning them

• An understanding of why employer pension contributions are probably the most underused tool in your setup

• A sense of the most efficient mix of salary, dividends and pension for your situation

• The five questions to start answering ten years before you exit, not one year before

• Confidence that you can build personal wealth outside the business, so the eventual exit becomes a choice, not a necessity

Why Tax Planning for Business Owners Matters

Your accountant files the returns. They make sure the right amounts are paid on time and the books balance at year end. They do this well, and you sleep easier because they do. What they typically do not do is plan, not in the deeper sense. How to extract value from the business in the most efficient way, year after year, with your long term wealth picture in view, is not usually their remit. The trouble is, most owners assume it is.

That gap is where most business owners lose real money, quietly, every year, for as long as the business runs. The cost is rarely a single big mistake. It is a slow leak, usually a five figure one, that compounds over a working life. The owners who exit comfortably stopped relying on the eventual sale alone years before it happened, because they had a planner alongside their accountant, building wealth outside the business at the same time.

What is Financial Planning for Business Owners?

Financial planning for business owners is the work of designing how money leaves the business, builds long term personal wealth, and supports the life you want, including the eventual exit. It runs alongside your accountant’s compliance work and typically covers:

• The most tax efficient mix of salary, dividends and pension contributions

• Employer pension contributions through the company

• Building personal wealth outside the business through ISAs and pensions

• Spouse and family allowances, used properly

• Exit planning, ten years before it happens

A good financial planner does not replace your accountant. They sit alongside them, taking responsibility for the planning side that is not part of compliance work, and reviewing the whole picture every year.

Do I Need a Financial Planner if I Have an Accountant?

If you own a limited company and your accountant is the only professional looking at your money, almost certainly yes. The two roles do different jobs. Your accountant files. A planner plans. You may want to consider speaking to a financial planner if you want to:

• Make sure you are paying yourself in the most tax efficient way for your situation

• Use employer pension contributions to reduce corporation tax and build personal wealth

• Build a meaningful pot of wealth outside the business before you exit

• Plan a sale or succession ten years out, not one year out

The first conversation is free and runs alongside your existing accountant rather than replacing them. Most owners walk away with at least one specific change they can put in place straight away, regardless of whether they ever work with us.