§ 04Thinking
Written while it still matters.
Notes from the partners on what has changed and what to do about it. No sign-up wall, no gated PDF, no quarterly round-up of things you already read elsewhere.
All notes
The transition profits nobody budgeted for
Basis period reform landed quietly. For unincorporated businesses with a non-March year end, the spread of transition profits is still working through, and the cash consequences arrive later than the tax charge.
6 min readR&D claims are being opened, not rejected
The volume of compliance checks has changed the calculus on marginal claims. A claim you can defend is worth more than a larger one you cannot, and the difference is almost always the contemporaneous record.
8 min readWhy thirteen weeks, and not twelve months
Annual budgets fail in the quarter they are needed. A short-horizon rolling cash flow is the only forecast that survives contact with a late debtor, and it takes an afternoon to build properly.
5 min readThe eighteen months before you go to market
Value is made in preparation, not negotiation. Clean up the balance sheet, separate the property, document the recurring revenue, and reduce the dependence on the person who wants to leave.
9 min readMaking Tax Digital for income tax, practically
Quarterly updates change the rhythm of the year for landlords and sole traders more than they change the tax. The firms that prepared early are the ones not billing their clients for the panic.
7 min readEmployee ownership trusts, and when they are wrong
An EOT is an elegant answer to a specific question. It is a poor answer to several other questions it is increasingly being sold as the solution to.
6 min read