Frequently Asked Questions

You can draw a dividend only when your company has made sufficient post-tax profits. Our team will help you understand your retained earnings and ensure any dividends you take are compliant and tax-efficient.

You can claim costs that are “wholly and exclusively” for your business, such as travel, tools, equipment, and certain legal fees. We’ll support you in identifying and recording every allowable expense to maximise your tax relief.

Once we register you with HMRC, you’ll typically receive your VAT number within 2–4 weeks. (We give you a more accurate guide on the current timeframe when we start the process). Occasionally HMRC may ask for more information, which could extend the process slightly—but we’ll guide you through invoicing and compliance while you wait.

Self-assessment returns relate to the period ending 5 April and must be submitted by 31 January for online filings (or 31 October if you’re filing by paper). We’ll manage your reminders, collection of information, and submission, so you don’t have to worry about deadlines.

Travel to temporary workplaces is claimable, but if you work at the same location for over 24 months or more than 40% of your time, HMRC classifies it as permanent—not allowable. We’ll help you navigate these rules for proper expense claims.

We’ll guide you on setting up your salary via PAYE and choose the most tax-efficient combination of salary and dividends. Typically, a directors’ salary is around £12,570 (2025/26) to balance tax-free earnings and pension entitlement—though this varies depending on your personal and business circumstances.

Your Directors’ Loan Account tracks money you’ve lent to or taken from your company outside of salary or dividends. We monitor this closely to ensure your drawings are documented correctly and any overdrawn balances are managed.

Invoices are legal documents and cannot be deleted. If you need to cancel or correct one, the standard practice is to raise a credit note to offset it, ensuring everything remains transparent and compliant.

You must not charge or show VAT on sales invoices until HMRC issues your VAT registration number: gov.uk+6gov.uk+6gov.uk+6.

Even though you don’t show VAT to customers, you’re still liable to pay VAT on any sales made from the effective VAT registration date. So you’ll need to set aside the VAT you would have charged.

1. Reissue or amend invoices issued after your effective registration date, adding:

   HMRC generally expects this within 30 dayscommunity.hmrc.gov.ukgov.uk+1gov.uk+1gov.uk.

• Your VAT number
• VAT amount and rate
• All other required invoice details
2. Send revised invoices to customers to ensure they have the proper VAT invoice for their own records or reclaiming.

These VAT-inclusive invoices allow your customers—especially VAT-registered businesses—to reclaim the VAT they’ve paid. Plus, HMRC requires proper records gov.uk+6gov.uk+6gov.uk+6.

Reconciling ensures every transaction matches your records, keeping accounts accurate and compliant. We can manage this process for you or train you to use software tools that import transactions and categorise them quickly and efficiently.