Compliance Services

• Accountancy
• Taxation
• Corporation tax
• Bookkeeping
• VAT
• Payroll
• Business planning
• Business start-up
• Company secretarial
• Corporate finance
• Financial planning
• Computers & computer systems
• Management accounts
• Statutory accounts
• Audit
• Fee Protection Insurance
  

Accountancy

Cunninghams can provide a full range of services dealing with small sole traders right through to Limited companies which has more specialist needs. All of our services offer value for money and can add that personal attention that all clients look for, but not all accountancy firms can offer. Our experience helps us to meet the requirements of our client businesses and to offer a cost effective service.

In preparing your accounts we aim to assist you to add value to your business. Our audit work helps you comply with the necessary statutory requirements and with a business review of taxation and financial planning help you to add value to your business and plan for the future.

Taxation

Our aim is to help you with your compliance requirements for Income, Tax, VAT and PAYE etc. We also are here to assist you with all aspects of taxation planning and advice, such as:

• Personal tax planning
• Completion of tax returns
• Benefits packages, remuneration planning and employment tax
• Partnership tax
• Inland Revenue investigations
• Value added tax, VAT returns, VAT planning
• Retirement Planning, Capital gains tax
• Trusts and estate planning

Corporation tax

Taxation will represent a substantial cost to any profitable business, not only in terms of the tax itself but also in compliance with reporting obligations, investigations with tax authorities and penalties for non-compliance.

We can help you minimise your tax payments and relieve you of any administrative burden of complying with tax legislation. We will deal with all business tax matters, including preparing income and /or corporation tax computations and preparing and submitting your partnership tax return or corporation tax self-assessment return.

Cunninghams offer a complete service for clients to include bookkeeping, payroll and VAT returns etc. If any of the above are a problem or worry for you let Cunninghams help you.

Bookkeeping

We can relieve you and your business of a significant burden by taking care of all your bookkeeping and accounting needs. This ranges from making use of our inhouse bookkeeping bureau to the preparation of your annual accounts. We will treat every business individually so that we can tailor our approach to your requirements.

Besides the core bookkeeping, we can also maintain your VAT records, prepare your payroll and take on ad hoc projects to free up valuable time for your staff.

We believe that our high level of IT literacy can help improve our efficiency and help our clients to set-up their accounting systems to be efficient and effective. We are Sage Accountants Club Members and can supply software and hardware.

VAT

VAT Returns completed and inquiries from HM Customs and Excise dealt with.

Payroll

Running your own payroll can be time consuming and complicated, particularly with the ever increasing complexity of taxation and employment legislation. There is an increasing burden on business to comply with these issues and non-compliance can lead to substantial penalties.

We can prepare payrolls for businesses with 2 to 200 staff.

Our service is comprehensive and confidential and includes:

• computer generated payslips
• administration of PAYE, national insurance, statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay, etc
• completion of statutory forms (including year end returns)
• summaries and analysis of staff costs
• administration of incentive schemes, bonuses and ex-gratia termination payments.

Even if you only have a few employees, you will make savings by engaging us to administer your payroll.

Business planning

Every business must plan ahead in order to ensure success, but it is too easy to succumb to the daily pressures of work and delay or ignore strategic planning. The result of poor planning is often rushed and misinformed decisions, over/under capacity, inefficiency and missed opportunities.

Every business owner needs to invest time in developing a long-term plan, starting with what you want to achieve from your investment and what your reasons for being in business are, and then developing a plan to help achieve these objectives.

We are well placed to help you develop these plans and have a considerable pool of experience and expertise to draw on. The financial aspects are usually the backbone to any business plan and you need to ensure that this aspect has been adequately dealt with in your plan.

Contact us today for a strategic planning review.

Business start-up

Most people who start up in business do so because they have a good business proposition, not because they are experts in the financial aspects of running a business. These factors can often be quite daunting to the entrepreneur and this is where we can help by evaluating your ideas and helping you develop them into a feasible business.

We can also help you:

• decide on the most suitable structure for your business (i.e. sole trader, partnership or limited company)
• prepare a business plan, cashflow projections, budgets and trading
• forecasts to prove the financial viability of your ideas and demonstrate this to the bank / potential investors
• assess your finance requirements and access the most appropriate source of finance
• help you establish relationships with banks, solicitors, etc via our well established network of contacts
• carry out registration procedures with Companies House, Inland Revenue or Customs and Excise
• set up an internal accounting system which complies with statutory requirements

Call us for a free initial consultation to find out how we can help your ideas become reality.

Company secretarial

When running a hectic business you cannot afford to use valuable time making sure you are complying with the Companies Act. However you do need to be aware how this legislation affects your company and its directors. We can help by carrying out the company secretarial duties for you. Our services include:

• company formations
• preparation and filing of statutory returns
• preparation of all documentation (such as minutes and resolutions)
• maintenance of statutory books (share register, minute book, etc)
• general advice on company law
  

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Corporate finance

Cunninghams can assist you with your planning requirements in acquisitions sales & mergers.

We can advise and assist you on the following:

• Tax implications
• Negotiations
• Provision of Relevant Information
• Fund-raising
• Targeting prospective purchases
• Targeting acquisition prospects
• Liaising with solicitors and reviewing legal documentation
• Reconstruction's etc.

Financial planning

Cunninghams is not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but we are able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of investment services to clients because we are members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. We can provide these investment services if they are an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide.

In addition to this we have teamed up with three firms of local financial advisors who we are pleased to liase closely with in connection with providing you with Independant Financial Advice.

• Individual Savings Accounts (ISA's)
  
• Personal Pensions
• Stakeholder Pensions
• Corporate Pensions
• Life Assurance
• Inheritance Tax Planning
• Lump Sum and Regular Investments

We will be pleased to arrange an initial meeting with the advisor of your choice.

Computers & computer systems

Cunninghams have experience in dealing with many computer hardware and software systems. We can offer services in the following areas:

• Advice on purchase and installation of computer systems
• Training
• Preparation and Manuals

Management accounts

The most important part of our compliance services is the preparation of periodic management accounts. Monitoring and controlling the financial performance of your business is of paramount importance and regular management information is vital to the continued success of your business. We can either carry out this function for you or help you set-up internal systems to generate the information.

We will also take this service one step further by interpreting these figures for you and making suggestions to help you improve your profits or to help your business grow.

Statutory accounts

If you are a limited company then you are required to prepare accounts that must be filed with Companies House in a statutory format. We can help you by preparing your statutory accounts and filing them with Companies House for you.

Audit

Many limited companies and other entities are required by law to have their accounts audited. We are Registered Auditors and have experience in wide range of businesses, from small family-owned companies to large organisations.

Our audit services aim to provide you with confidence in the accuracy of your financial statements, and assurance as to the efficiency and effectiveness of your accouning procedures and internal controls.

Fee Protection Insurance: Against Inland Revenue/PAYE/P11D/Contributions Agency Investigations and VAT Disputes

Self Assessment has been in force for eight years and never has this type of business insurance taken such high priority. Self Assessment has led to a marked increase in Inland Revenue full and random enquiries resulting in increased professional costs to protect your position.

Future full and random enquiries could well be computer generated and, therefore, may not take into account the unique trading environment of a business at a particular moment in time. It follows, even more so, that the vast majority of these enquiries will continue to have nothing whatsoever to do with fraud or negligence, minor year on year fluctuations in results could be enough to trigger off a full enquiry.

An average Inland Revenue enquiry will last around 12 months and cost some £2,000 in professional fees to complete, probably twice that where the affairs are more complex. Costs often bear no relation to the final tax settlement.

Most of our clients need to be aware that VAT disputes are more often conceded because without fee indemnity cover fees can exceed any potential VAT saving. We also believe that PAYE/P11D and Contributions Agency Inspectors have achieved favourable settlements for the Exchequer because the economics of the situation and not necessarily the strength of the argument!

We have recently concluded a 3 year Inland Revenue investigation into one of our small Limited Company retail clients.

This was a family business with a turnover of £150,000.

The Inland Revenue assessed the company / directors for additional tax, interest and penalties of more than £200,000.

We took the case to the General Commissioners of the Inland Revenue and settled the enquiry for £5,000.

Fortunately this client was insured with IRPC and therefore all the costs of the enquiry were covered by Insurance.

Our costs for defending this enquiry were approximately £10,000. IRPC provided an expert in tax enquiries, the cost of whom would have been in excess of £10,000.

This type of aggressive enquiry is rare but when it does occur the results can be devastating.

Many of our clients have already taken out this Insurance and if you have not yet so we would strongly advise you to consider your position and ask us for a quotation. We cannot emphasise enough the real threat these enquiries can pose to your business.

Cunninghams are often asked for advice and guidance on non-financial matters and this has influenced our decision to choose the IRPC Scheme. As part of the service you will access to advice on:

• Employement and Personnel
• Health and Safety
• Commercial Legal Advice

You will not be charged any additional fees to the telephone advice from IRPC's specialists and we would encourage you to use this facility to your best advantage. Legislation in the areas is increasing and non-compliance can cost a business dear.

Please contact us if you require any further information or you require a competitive quotation for your business.