Year-end is looming… time to get your house in order

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  Posted by: Dental Design      5th December 2021

All dental practice owners know year-end is looming. It may be an annual event, but no year-end is ever quite the same as the last. Preparation is everything and also allows you to see where your business is financially and, if you’re not where you should or want to be, strategise for the next 12 months and beyond.

Gather the data 

Using a specialist dental accountant saves time and stress, but you’ll need to supply the relevant paperwork. I’ve long been an advocate for paperless working, including Cloud-based platforms to securely store and manage crucial documents. The benefits are too numerous to list; the main ones being that it is a convenient, flexible and highly-efficient way to keep large amounts of data, retrieve it as often as you like, from wherever you like, and share it with whomever you wish.

Other housekeeping tasks include making sure your expenses are in good order – do you know what you can and can’t claim for? HMRC’s definition is something that is “wholly and exclusively” for business use; your accountant can advise if you aren’t sure, and there is guidance on the government’s website. When you have maximised what you are claiming in allowable expenses, this can improve your tax efficiency. Corporation tax is increasing for all but the smallest companies in 2023, so there is no better reason to ensure you know your way around expenses. As an aside, your preparation for year-end must include getting up-to-date on all future tax changes that could eventually impact on your business.

We have covered Capital Allowances (CAs) in a previous column; this is a form of tax relief given when equipment is purchased for use in a business, so these come under expenses too. Confusion over when CAs can be claimed often makes them seem complex; again, do your homework and/or speak with an expert.

What else on the to-do list?

You should be ready for MTD; as another aside, MTD for income tax is due to start in 2024, after being pushed back a year. This means you’ll need to record your income and expenditure digitally and move to Cloud-based bookkeeping if you are still using paper or desktop record keeping.

Now is also a good time to review suppliers to see if you are getting the best deal, and move on from those who are not giving value for money. The end of 2021 saw headlines about record rises in the rate of inflation; running a business in 2022 could be a costly affair.

The run-up to year-end is the perfect opportunity to commit to good planning, to minimise your tax bill in the short and longer terms. There are plenty of creative – and legitimate – ways to optimise your business finances; a specialist dental accountant like those we have on the team at Figurit will help. Combining the principles of accounting with in-depth knowledge of the dental industry we’ll keep you well prepared, up-to-date and tax efficient.

This is not an exhaustive list of what to do to prepare for year-end, more a nudge to make sure you’re organised. Year-end is a time to take stock and analyse your financial position. You will gain valuable insight into what changes to make, and uncover valuable opportunities that will make the next financial year even better than the last.

Michael Lansdell – Business Director

Michael is a specialist Dental Accountant and Tax Advisor with strong technical and communication skills.

Completing his training with international accounting firm Deloitte he then became a founding Partner at

Figurit (formally Lansdell and Rose)

Michael combines a strategic approach with high attention to detail and is focused on saving his clients tax

over both the short and long term, using robust tax-saving vehicles and tax efficient business structuring.

T: 020 7376 9333 E: info@figurit.com

 

For more information, please visit https://figurit.com
or call Figurit (formerly known as Lansdell & Rose) on 020 7376 9333.

 

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