Business

Accounting and the preparation of regular management information is the life blood of every business. Without good financial information your business will be flying blind. If things are going well and the business is growing, you will need to plan your cash flows to meet the increasing working capital requirements and capital expenditure. When things are going badly you need to understand why, analyse profitability and know where to cut costs. With uncertainty the inevitable outcome is failure.

With teams of qualified professionals, WSM® provides whatever technical accounting support is needed; from advanced spreadsheet analysis tools, to experience with accounting software applications and support of clients own systems. We have a special projects manager who is experience with accounting and reporting systems who is available to get your management systems producing the information you need to run your business at its peak performance.

Monthly reporting enables the business to be managed, but the ultimate measure of success or failure comes with the annual published accounts. These are the basis on which external uses can judge the viability of the business. It is the basis on which suppliers will offer credit lines and bankers will provide finance. It is the basis on which the government determine the level of taxation and on which buyers will value the business. It is a statement that will be on permanent public record.

Given the importance of the statutory financial statements you won’t be surprised that all our professionals are kept right up to date with the latest UK and International accounting and reporting standards through regular training and professional development. Knowing what has to be disclosed, what should be disclosed and what a company may wish to keep private, may be of vital importance when a competitor is looking to gain commercial advantage or an investor is looking for a high performing investment opportunity. Accounts provide facts on which people make decisions. They are too important to be left to chance.

The firm has provided specialist real estate tax services to international property investors for over 30 years. Our team has experience with individual, corporate and collective funds investing in UK commercial and residential assets.

Our work includes initial advice on UK tax matters, registration with HM Revenue & Customs, dealing with quarterly and annual reporting of rental income under Corporation Tax or Income Tax legislation. We advise on VAT, opting to tax and dealing with quarterly VAT reporting as well as dealing with Capital Gains Tax issues upon disposal of assets.

An example of our latest work in this area involved a disposal of UK property by a German GmbH & Co KG, a collective investment vehicle with over 2,500 investors. The sale constituted a direct disposal of part of the property pro-rata to each investor’s percentage share of the KG. In addition to registering each investor with HMRC we had to prepare CGT returns on behalf of investors who had a gain over the annual exempt amount, all submitted within the 60-day time limit following the disposal.

Returns and accounts have to be filed with HMRC and it has never been more important to ensure that your business is compliant with current tax legislation so that it avoids the fines, penalties, and late payment interest that can be levied upon businesses and their owners for any failures.

WSM® has a fully integrated tax compliance software system which manages, monitors and reports upon the various stages, filing deadlines and payment deadlines for the monthly, quarterly and annual cycle of employment taxes, VAT, Income Tax and Corporation Tax.

We are now operating in a new tax environment where, rightly, there is a national and international clamp down on tax evasion. Client’s peace of mind has become as important as tax minimisation, however it is important that tax laws are upheld and applied fairly. It remains a founding principle in UK tax legislation that all taxpayers have a right to arrange their affairs to legitimately minimise their tax liability.

We see it as our responsibility to ensure that business owners are fully informed about all tax aspects of their future plans and to advise them about arrangements that comply fully with the law, whilst staying firmly on the right side of the sometimes grey boundaries of legislation and practice, to maximise any tax advantage arising from a particular course of action.

HM Revenue & Customs have been placing increased reliance upon computer based analytics to select and investigate unusual annual accounts and tax returns. In addition, cost constraints in the public sector have meant that more resources have been placed by HMRC on enquiry and investigation and less on compliance.

The firm has over 150 years of combined experience in dealing with revenue enquiries, as well as having a number of associate members of the Chartered Institute of tax advisors and former tax office staff on the team. As a final element of support, the firm carries fee protection insurance to cover the professional fees associated with tax enquiries made on behalf of our clients.

Effective reporting to senior management on the quality and reliability of a company’s accounting systems and to shareholders on the truth and fairness of its financial statements are the driving goals of the annual audit. In addition an effective assessment of the key risks facing the business is integral to any assurance process.

As a firm that has been engaged in providing audit services for over 30 years and with a number of Senior Statutory Auditors in the team registered with the ICAEW, the firm is well placed to meet the needs of those clients choosing to benefit from our assurance services or those where audited accounts are a requirement imposed by legislation or other outside parties.

There has never been a better time to outsource your company payroll. The introduction of Real Time Information (RTI) by HMRC has put payroll departments under increasing pressure and the fear of fines and penalties for missing deadlines and making mistakes is ever present. Any errors in the payment of wages and salaries can also impact on staff morale. As if RTI wasn’t enough, government has pushed more administration onto payroll teams in the form of auto-enrolment for employee pensions.

Our payroll department offers a personalised and efficient, back-office facility, so that all your payroll challenges are outsourced. Our aim is to provide compliant, flexible, accurate and timely services to satisfy your individual needs. Quite simply, we take on the responsibility. Our bureau service with professional security payslips, bank transfer facilities and monthly payroll journals, to your nominal ledger, takes all the pressure from your accounting team. We operate payrolls with 250 staff, to payrolls with single directors and from fast moving weekly based variable remuneration, to annual contracts for households with nannies.

We work closely with auto-enrolment provider Creative Auto Enrolment as well as assisting clients to use the government backed scheme (NEST). We also have a long standing relationship with leading employee benefits consultancy Punter Southall who we have successfully worked with for many years.

Although filing the company’s statutory documents has become an increasingly user friendly online experience: the record maintained in the statutory books of the company is the true record that courts will rely on to decide share ownership, appointments and legal charges.

WSM® uses ‘First Order’ company secretarial software to ensure that company records for which we have responsibility are easily accessible and up to date. In addition the software interfaces with the Companies House computer to file electronically generated documents helping to ensure that our clients never suffer from fines for failure to submit important annual returns and accounts.

Nowhere is the phrase ‘caveat emptor’ or ‘buyer beware’ more true than in the acquisition of a business. Many businesses with high growth expectations are fuelled by the addition and absorption of existing businesses rather than by achieving natural organic growth.

WSM® provides a nimble and flexible investigation resource – with skills honed in audit, assurance and tax – that can examine and critically assess the quality and reliability of information provided by a seller and with the use of analytical tools can undertake quick and effective due diligence that focuses on the key issues and, where appropriate, suggests solutions where potential problems may exist or could arise.

“It is a pleasure working with someone who is so proactive and a real partner in our efforts to build the business.” – Radius

Apart from being one of the most useful management tools in the box, financial forecasts are essential for any business to quantify and assess their future plans. In addition to the management team, external users such as banks, investors and other lenders will want to be able to understand plans for expansion and growth, and test the impact to the plan of national and global influences. A plan provides the business with direction and route to achieving the objective. Without a plan, how does a business – and more specifically the people within it – know where it is going?

We love working with exciting, fast growing young businesses and we put 100% effort into preparing and testing the sensitivity of forecasts and plans to changing external factors and robustly assess the skills of the management team to ensure that their plans are backed with tangible evidence to support their assumptions and assertions.

R&D Tax Credits provide a rare opportunity for companies to claim cash back from HMRC.

The 2014 Finance Act has increased the cash back option to over 32% of the R&D expenditure for small and medium sized companies.

We have helped companies make claims under the R&D Tax Credits for cash back and for enhanced tax deductions which have resulted in cash payments totalling over £1,500,000 and a further £1,500,000 in reduced Corporation Tax payments, with claims ranging from £10,000 to over £250,000.

Given the substantial advantages of these tax credits, it is always worth another look at what the business is currently doing to change and improve its products and services. You do not need to have a R&D department or technicians in white coats; it is about what you do to stay competitive.

Take a look at our R&D checklist to find out if your company meets certain eligibility criteria.

Checklist

1. Has the company developed a new process or product in the last three years?
2. Have you undertaken a project that aims to extend the overall knowledge or capability?
3. Has the company made an improvement to an existing process or product?
4. Has the company created a process or device which increases knowledge in its field of work?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘yes’ then you could be eligible for R&D tax credits.

For further information, please contact Simon Marsh on 020 8545 7600 or read our brochure here

Testimonials

John Hine, Compcom:

‘WSM® have provided me with outstanding advice over the years that has aided my strategic planning; the service, knowledge and expertise provided by the three principals directly to myself provides the collective service-wrap unequalled by the major household names as one would not have access to these in individuals. This service permeates throughout their firm and has now resulted in a highly satisfactory claim for R&D Cash-back and tax credits, without their innovative ideas and pro-active suggestions we would not have navigated our route to a successful conclusion and we now have the cash in the bank!’ 

Stuart Berwick, Single Track Stystem:

‘From the start WSM® provided us with straightforward guidance on eligibility criteria and helped us through the whole application process, which ultimately resulted in a successful and significant claim for R&D expenses. WSM® made the process stress-free and worked in close partnership with us throughout; we will be using them again and would recommend them to any business who wants to want to know whether or not they have a claim.’

James Wilkinson, Streaming Tank

‘If your company hasn’t thought about R&D tax credits before then I would definitely run through your options with WSM®, because it was the best decision we ever made. We are extremely impressed with the outstanding service at WSM® and are looking forward to working with them a lot more as we grow our business globally.’