When tax planning it is very important to give equal consideration to business and personal tax affairs. Taking a ‘holistic’ approach may sound a bit ‘airy-fairy’ but it makes a very concrete difference between incurring tax unnecessarily and paying the legal minimum.

As tax advisers to small businesses, our firm has been involved with buying and selling many companies over the years. What has always been surprising when working on transactions is the frequency with which buyers tend to make the same mistakes. Reflecting on the issues involved, they all seem to stem from a single error of judgment, which is that tax and legal advisors should become involved with a business sale when an initial deal has been agreed between the buyer and seller.

We have a wide range of expertise available to the EBA covering accounts & tax, government funding, HR & people management, health & safety, ‘fit for business’, PR, reputation management & personal branding.

‘DC’, business owner with an annual turnover of £5.5m asked: “After the budget, tax planning is changing again yet what is the best way to avoid paying Tax on profit in a Ltd company? Is a pension contribution as good as anything else or an EBT contribution? Any suggestions?”

In our view, this is the first decent budget for entrepreneurs and business owners for some time and exactly what the country needs to help rebuild economic activity.