Providing you with all the accountancy and tax services that you need to keep your Small Business in Scotland running smoothly.
What Is A Small Business?
99.9% of businesses in the UK fit in to the definition of an SME (Small or Medium Sized Enterprise). Even within this definition a Small Business can be surprisingly large! A commonly used definition is the EU definition of Small and Micro Businesses which lists the following criteria:
- a small business has fewer than 50 employees and either a turnover of up to £8.6million or a balance sheet of up to £8.6 million
- a micro-business has fewer than ten employees and either a turnover of up to £1.7 million or a balance sheet total of up to £1.7 million
Which Size Of Small Businesses Do You Have As Clients?
We are small business accountants for many clients in Scotland and across the UK. We act for hundreds of Limited Companies, Sole Traders and Partnerships. Our clients have turnovers from £100,000 a year to £8 million a year and we can tailor of accounting service to any business in between.
Which Types Of Businesses Does Your Accountancy Firm Have?
We cater for many different types of businesses such as Builders, Nurseries, Pubs and Restaurants, Security companies and many more. Get in contact and we can help your business with industry specific online accounting software as well as accounts and tax advice customised to your business area.
Which Small Business Accounting Services Do You Provide?
We provide our clients with all the accounting services they need to run their businesses. Typically every business will need Accounts prepared and if it is a Limited Company they will require a Corporation Tax return. We normally prepare Personal Self Assessment returns for the business owners and if they happen to have other income from letting property or elsewhere we deal with that too. Every business needs to keep good records so we provide bookkeeping services for many of our clients along with VAT returns if necessary. Other services such as payroll and auto enrolment admin are available to make up a full package of services.
Small Business Cloud Accounting
We are experts at online accounting and are Xero Gold Partners. A great proportion of our clients now use Xero Online Accounting Software. We can provide this software as part of our accounting service and can do all of your bookkeeping if you require. We are experts in the use of this software to make your accounting system as efficient as possible.
Why Should I Choose Sutherland Black As My Small Business Accountant?
We believe we have a unique blend of services for small businesses that make us a great choice for small businesses across Scotland. We will meet with you and provide you with a fixed price proposal for the accounting services that you need. We will then set up a monthly direct debit for these services. You will have a dedicated accountant as your client manager who will ensure that your accounts and tax are done on time to a high standard.
We are members of the Institute For Chartered Accountants of Scotland and the Chartered Institute of Taxation so you can be assured of the best accounting and tax efficiency advice. We will register as your agents with HMRC and have years of experience of dealing with HMRC on our client’s behalf.
We have offices in Edinburgh, Livingston and Glasgow. Follow these links for more details: Edinburgh Accountants, Glasgow Accountants, Livingston Accountants.
What Legal Forms Can A Small Business Take?
A small business can be set up in a number of different ways depending on how many people are running it and the legal status. The decision of how to structure your small business is an important one as there are legal and also tax consequences of trading in a different style. Whether you are starting up of you already have an existing business we can discuss the right structure for you.
Many businesses start as a Sole Trader or Partnership where one or more people respectively start trading as a business. These type of businesses are not a separate legal entity from their owners and are tax as self employment. This means the profits of the business are calculated and the tax is paid by each person through their personal self assessment tax return. Partnerships additionally have to submit a partnership tax return for their business.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Sole Traders and Limited Companies
Whilst the Sole Trade / Partnership route is straightforward to set up and run there are a number of disadvantages. The first is that as there is not any legal separation between the business and the person if the business has problems and generates debts those debts are personally liable on the owner. Another issue is that the tax treatment is not that flexible, there is not a lot of scope for arranging the business in a tax efficient way.
We would normally recommend that anything except the very smallest micro business is set up as a Limited Company. We can register your business with Companies House and make sure that you are complying with all the statutory requirements.
See our Limited Company Accountancy services here.
FAQs
How Much Does Small Business Accounting Cost?
Our small business accounting service is customised to your needs. We will provide you with a custom fixed price proposal for the accountancy services that you need. A popular add on is paying for your Xero online accounting software through us. We always work on fixed prices and our clients pay by monthly direct debit giving them peace of mind that they will not get any surprise bills for their accountancy service.
Is Your Accountancy Firm Regulated?
Many people do not realise that you do not have to be regulated to set up as and accountant. We are members of both the Institute Of Chartered Accountants Of Scotland (ICAS) as well as the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT). This means that you can be assured of the highest level of tax and accounts service as well as high levels of professionalism.
Is It Difficult To Switch Accountants?
It’s actually really easy to switch accountants. Your dedicated accountant and our admin staff will take care of the whole process for you. We will contact your previous accountant for your historical accounts and tax information, integrate with any accounting software that you have and get going with running your business bookkeeping straight away if you have asked us to do that. If there has been a problem with the previous accountant we can file any outstanding annual accounts and tax returns within a month to make sure you don’t accrue any extra penalties.
Is It Difficult To Switch Accountants?
Fill in our contact form here. We will be in touch in the next day or so for a discovery call to ensure our accounting service is a good fit for your accounting needs. We can then arrange a longer meeting in one of our convenient offices or by Zoom to agree a service that is customised to your business.
