Dear HMRC

Taxpayers have benefited from recent changes allowing cash accounting for sole traders and simplified company reporting. The press releases accompanying these changes talk  a lot about simplification, with the sub-text that enterprise Britain enables small businesses to deal easily direct with HMRC and companies house. There is no need to pay an accountant so say the politicians.

The reality for small business owners is very different.

Here are the main questions we ask our clients before making a recommendation:

1. ARE YOU MAKING TAX LOSSES?

Yes - If you are a Sole Trader in your first 4 tax years of trading you can offset these losses against other taxable income from the previous 3 tax years.

We are seeing lots of examples of companies being set up incorrectly.

Incorporation agents and companies house let you set up your company without many checks and balances.

Here are 8 things you need to know:

Now we've just finished the usual flurry of last minute income tax returns, it's a good time to remind ourselves why we should submit our income tax and corporation tax returns early.

When I suggest this to people, about a quarter of them query it as a bad idea because it means the tax is due earlier.

This isn't true for any tax payments. Tax due dates are fixed according to accounts and tax year ends.