FAQs

The government recognises that many small businesses pay little or no business rates because of Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR). To support those businesses, the government will provide £2.2 billion of funding for Local authorities in England. This will provide £10,000 to around 700,000 business currently eligible for SBRR or Rural Rate Relief, to help meet their ongoing business costs. For a property with a rateable value of £12,000, this is one quarter of their rateable value, or comparable to 3 months of rent. Most properties that are eligible for SBRR will have a lower rateable value, and so this will represent an even greater proportion of their annual rent.

In addition to a 2020/21 business rates holiday, a £25,000 grant will also be provided to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses operating from premises with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000. There is no need to apply for this grant which will be paid by the local authorities.

The VAT deferment applies automatically to all businesses and will benefit around two million taxpayers. VAT returns still need to be submitted on time and repayment claims will still be processed as normal.

The Warranties and Covenants (“W&C”) primarily protect the buyer. They cover all aspects of the business from employees and customer contracts to accounting and tax provisions. These should be reviewed in detail alongside the due diligence findings to ensure they are not overly onerous and that your position is also reasonably safeguarded.

The W&Cs should be considered in detail by your legal and tax advisers. Often, these start as generic clauses that may not reflect the transaction or your business. These are often heavily negotiated parts of the documentation and link directly to the disclosure documents such as the disclosure letter.

We can help with legal, tax structuring and completion. Tapping into our network of trusted partners in Cambridge, we’ll oversee this stage while keeping you informed and answering any questions.

We know you care deeply about your institution and take your role as stewards of a charitable fund seriously. We offer face-to-face engagement and challenge. The approach that works well is for us to work on-site for audits where possible, getting to really know you, establishing a robust process, and ensuring continuity across the whole team. We use technology thoughtfully; data analytics drives efficiency and rigour, and our education specialists are there to personally interrogate outputs.

Along with accountancy, personal and employment tax, and VAT, we also help with partners’ professional expenses and capital allowance claims, annual GP superannuation certificates, advice on partners’ drawings and profit maximisation, practice cash flow forecasting, financial advice, investment planning and retirement planning.

Executors sometimes miss improving the tax position or their reporting obligations. Whether this is due to a lack of knowledge or information, this can result in paying more tax than necessary and penalties payable to HMRC.

Our ambition is simple: to make your audit as efficient, valuable and unsurprising as possible. We’re a team of partner-led specialists that you can talk to any time. You’ll benefit from hands-on support and continuity, too.

Under changes to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA), from November 2025, all new directors and persons with significant control (PSCs) are required to verify their identity at the point of incorporation.

Our ECCTA hub helps company directors and persons of significant control understand the changes and provides clear, practical guidance, ensuring you know what’s required, why it matters, and how to stay compliant.

• Late returns – Consistently filing returns late
• Changing information – Changing information in a filed return
• Late payments – Regularly making late tax payments
• Random selection – Being selected at random for investigation
• Tip-offs – Tip-offs from members of the public
• Rejected information – Your return doesn’t reflect information held by HMRC
• Inconsistencies – Inconsistencies in your records or behaviour that raises HMRC’s suspicions (e.g. a large rise in costs or fall in income)
• High-risk sector – Working in a high-risk sector (e.g. cash trades) or an industry HMRC is proactively targeting

An MBO is flexible, and you have plenty of funding options. A leveraged MBO uses the company’s assets as collateral to secure borrowing, meaning the business itself helps finance the deal. Loan notes work differently; they’re essentially an IOU to the owner, repaid over time. You could also consider raising finance from a bank or private equity firm, depending on the size of the stake in the business. Many MBOs are funded through a combination of these.

The type of investigation provides the biggest indication of how complicated the process might be.

1. An aspect investigation

HMRC suspect there is a specific inaccuracy on your self-assessment tax return. The inspector will want to check the records associated with this part of your tax return.

2. A full investigation

In a full investigation, every element of your tax return can be examined in detail. In short, the inspector may ask for all records for the tax year in question.