This company came to us when their previous accountant sadly had been taken seriously ill. That meant a number of statutory or tax returns hadn’t been filed on time and some hadn’t been filed at all. It was impossible to get hold of their previous accountant for the customary professional handover information, so the situation was unclear to both our client and ourselves as to where their records were up to. Consequently, they were being fined by HMRC for all of their different taxes together with interest.
We took them on, asked HMRC for copies of filed returns that were available, moved all their records onto a cloud accounting system, sorted out their historic payroll transactions based on their bank statements and although it took us a few months, we worked with both the client and HMRC and brought everything up to date enabling the company and HMRC to understand what taxes should be payable. HMRC then allowed them to pay their arrears in instalments.
A few years down the line and they are growing consistently. Our clients have embraced the new technology and through our guidance now understand the importance of keeping their own records and how to use the information at their fingertips. We have regular meetings where budgets and cash flow forecasts are discussed, and their records are up to date and they are now out of debt with HMRC.