With its tax reliefs improving over recent years, Research & Development claims should be given more attention.

For SMEs, when you spend £100 on R&D, your corporation tax is not only reduced by the £100 you've spent, but also by an additional £125, taking the total deduction against your company bill to £225.

If you're paying 20% corporation tax, you've saved additional tax of £25 (£125 @ 20%), taking total tax saved to £45 (£225 @ 20%).

Timing is everything for these sole traders and limited companies.

Where a small B2C business is having a bad time, usually on the high street, their turnover may now be lower than in the past and under the VAT threshold of £77k over the last 12 months.

De registering for VAT is very tempting as it either improves your margins, or allows you to price more competitively, or a mixture of both.

If you are lucky enough to be a guest at the Olympics, what sort are you and what tax is due?

1. Your client has invited you and your better half to enjoy the men's 100m final, plus you are wined and dined, all paid for by your client. Your company pays your train fare. You are hardly going to drive after all that free booze!

This is the E word - Entertaining! But it's mainly paid for by your client so it's his problem. What is that? Well, he can't claim any VAT deduction or any corporation tax relief for the cost. Happily you don't any suffer income tax. However, you won't be able to claim corporation tax relief for the train fare as the reason for the trip was Entertaining.

You have probably heard of lots of incentives for those who invest in start up companies. This is where individuals pay money to a company in exchange for shares in that company. The tax system helps subsidise the investor's risk in the new unproven business.

But what about your own sole trader business?

It might be small scale and, as there are no shares, it's probably just your money. Aren't you taking a risk? Where are the incentives for you? After all, you might have a good idea which in the future trades from a limited company.