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Case Study: Martin – unhappy with his previous accountant

When Martin arranged to see us he already had an accountant, however was very concerned about the invoice he had just received. Martin runs a one person business and has fairly straightforward tax affairs. When he engaged his previous accountant he was told that the bill would be £500-£750 which he thought was reasonable. Unfortunately […]

Creating content to help the small business owner

I started using social media for business in 2008, and blogging a year later – sharing advice to help the small business owner earn more and minimise their tax liabilities. In the time since then, in addition to running my company and consultancy, I have been regularly creating content to help people. As at October […]

Separating costs and products?

I have observed several companies separating their product from its cost, such as electronics companies with hidden cash registers in their stores, and theme parks where the payment booths are separated from the park entrances. The idea behind this is that the negative cost is not associated with the positive experience of the product. Whilst […]

Case Study: Erica – let down by her previous accountant

Like many self-employed people Erica had been busy running her business and tax was on her list of things to do. She had her papers ready in early November, nearly three months before the tax deadline. Erica already had an accountant that she had used for her previous years accounts and tax return, so was […]

Growing your small business book endorsed by Dr Ivan Misner, BNI® Founder

Ivan Misner, Ph.D., NY Times Bestselling Author and Founder of BNI® has endorsed my second book, Power Climb: “To read Power Climb is to empower yourself to earn more through learning more and gain greater enjoyment from the journey to the top. With this book, James continues the purposeful work he began with his first […]

Free small business tips – the taxhelp.uk.com 2012 publication schedule

I have been sharing advice to help small business since 2009, and in 2012 I have also been doing this by video as well as text. For the remainder of 2012 I have a regular schedule of updates planned now: Mondays – Achieving Freedom blog on taxhelp.uk.com/blog Tuesdays – James McBrearty video blog on youtube.com/taxhelpukcom […]

The 2012 tax return deadlines – 31/10/12 & 31/01/13

We are rapidly approaching the first tax return deadline of 31st October 2012, which is the deadline for paper tax returns to be submitted. The second deadline of 31st January 2013 applies for online submission of the tax returns, so if the first deadline is missed then a penalty can be avoided if online submission […]

The taxhelp.uk.com October newsletter

…has recently been sent to our clients. The newsletters are a regular feature where I share tax tips and special offers with our clients. In this issue I talk about the October 2012 tax return deadline, my Achieving Freedom business videos, as well as sharing the video interview with the winner of the taxhelp.uk.com summer […]

HMRC systems downtime October 2012

As you know, the 31st October Self Assessment filing deadline is approaching. However, HMRC’s systems will be down this weekend: From Friday 12 October 06:00 to Monday 15 October 06:00 Occasionally the downtime overruns, so it may be later than that before online access is restored. It’s another reason why I recommend that people submit […]

The new series of my small business video blog

My most popular blog post is ‘downtime & the self-employed’, so after working through July & August it was time to take my own advice and a few days off. It was also a good opportunity to shoot my next series of video blogs, outside of my studio. I will be releasing a new video […]