Why You Need An Accountant for Your Business

Our next guest on the podcast is Sema Ziler who works for Elan Tax.

There are a lot of tax mitigation you can do in tax planning. So say if Your bill is £200,000 tax, inheritance tax planning, you can reduce it to literally 100,000.It's your cash flow for the future and can be quite helpful to a business to have cash flow forecast management accounts. It keeps your finances tied up.

I'm worried about how should I save money or actually am I going to owe the HMRC more money?

The voices you know, Timothy, Tracy and Joe on the show, from front of house to chefs on the line, every voice can shape the future each time.

Our next guest on the podcast is Sema Ziler who works for Elan Tax.

Today is all about avoiding tax traps.So Sema, what's something that every self employed person in hospitality or a small business owner needs to know in order to stay compliant and save money and plan for a smarter future?

Okay, well thanks for that introduction. Hello, I work for Elan Tax. Elan Tax is based in London Bridge and has been there since 1997.We have a lot of hospitality like restaurants, cafes, bars on our client base. We basically specialise in larger firm expertise and resources.But we have a client focus that you only get in smaller accountancy firms as regards, you know, tax mitigation and what are the pitfalls? Obviously compliance. There's a lot of legal and regulatory requirements in accountancy.So first of all, if you have a business or you're self employed, I would recommend to get an accountant because it's a big headache, to be honest with you.If I give you an example of that, say for instance, payroll, you've got payroll and big issue and we can do, or an accountancy firm can do, is send you propagated templates which you just fill in, send back and then they'll send you your pay slip and you get a dedicated person there for your, you know, disposal, I can't think of a better word but disposal. So you know, it takes the hassle out of having to deal with the payroll yourself. Tax mitigation is an interesting question.One thing which is a hot topic in tax mitigation, and this is for self employed people as well as business owners, is inheritance tax planning. There are a lot of tax mitigation you can do in tax planning.So say if Your bill is £200,000 tax, inheritance tax planning, you can do stuff to reduce it to literally 100,000. So there is a lot of tax mitigation you can do. There's. I know that you were talking about cash flow forecasting. That's something.Predict your, it's your cash flow for the future and can be quite helpful to a business to have cash flow forecasts, management accounts, that sort of thing. It keeps your, your sort of finances tied up.And the good thing about that, besides the fact that it's a big headache is I shouldn't be saying headache because it's at my job, but this is what we do, we take.

Well, it's not a headache for you, Sema, that's the point, right?

We take the legal statutory requirements off you and you can then, you know, do your custom great customer service and I don't know, grow your business and everything and we can help with that.

And then, so I've got a strap line and then tax the aspirin to your tax header. Wow. What do you think? It's great. You can keep that. You, I'll only charge you 10% royalties.

(Laughs)Okay

But I think it's. Yeah, you're hitting a point because I don't know about you, Joe, but obviously you're doing it now. I'm no longer self employed.But every year, every year when you're going, oh, the sex deadline is, you know, was it end of a beginning, April? And you're going, yeah. And you're like, oh, I'll do it soon, do it soon. And then there's mass panic receipts everywhere.And then even if you do submit, you don't actually know what it is, you really do. And the thing is like, part of me was like, I'm not, I'm worried about how should I save money or actually am I going to owe the HMRC more money? And it's impossible to know.

Yeah, it is, it is hard to know. Like I can remember, I can remember as a kid watching, you know the, the TV advert when people used to watch tv.The TV adverts that said, oh, don't forget it's personal tax return deadline third of whenever it was in some time in the year. I grumb as a kid asking my dad going, dad, why do people like how long have you got to do it? He was like, oh, about six months.As I don't know if that's about right. Something like that. I said, all right. I said, and why do people just leave it till the last minute? He goes, because people are stupid, Joe.I was like, do you do yours the last minute? He goes, yeah. And now 25 years later, I leave it to the Last minute.

Yeah, well, we, we do all the chasing for that, so. Yeah. And we tell you what paperwork we need. We can also help you mitigate your taxes. As I say, it's individual for the individual client.And if anybody has any questions on the back of this podcast, they can either take up a free consultation with us or even just email me your questions and I can get back to you. So, you know, it's a complicated matter, but we can advise on business growth as well.

Well, how do you go into that?

Well, it depends on the client. I mean, if you have a, I mean, cash flow management accounts and cash flow forecasting help with business growth, you know.

So, for example, what would you say, so I'm a business owner or I'm self employed, what are the red flags that might pop into my mind that I should be thinking, darn, I need to get myself an accountant?

Well, if you're a business owner, for a start, you have to, if you've got employees, you're going to have to do payroll, so you might as well give it to an accountant and get them to do it. You know, to be quite blunt with you, I mean, you can do all, you can do all sorts of things.You can employ somebody to do payroll for you, but you've got to pay and it's a big headache. Whereas you, you know, it's cheaper also to give it to an accountant and get the accountant to do it for you and it takes that pressure away.What happens if your payroll woman wants to go on maternity leave? Okay. So you've got to start recruiting for another payroll person. You know, it's a nightmare really.

So you, you're, you, you have a business.

I do.

And at one point you were self employed as well.

Yeah, yeah.

So what point did you think actually, I need to get accountants help her?

It was when I, it's actually when I started doing payroll because it was just another. And I think what tipped the scales for me, like, I hate admin anyway, I love, like you can put me.

In front of people creative.

Yeah, yeah. This kind of thing I love, yeah, I love getting involved with big ideas.But when it's like a repetitive task or something where, you know, I, I'll, I'll book a train for the wrong day. Like I can't even, I can't even get that bit right. Like I've got, I've got, I don't have number or date to select series a thing. I'm in my business.I'm not allowed to schedule the meetings because I'LL schedule it for the wrong week. Yeah, like, but so it's a, it's a hard one for me anyways. It's swimming upstream. Right.But even for people that isn't the thing that tipped the scale was the actual downside of getting it wrong. Because the downside of getting it wrong with payroll especially the penalties can be quite high, can't they?

Yes, yes.If you late filing fees, if you have an accountant it that you know that they've figured out the figures correctly for you and filed it and you won't be in trouble with the hmrc. I mean when I was self employed that's what I would do just to, just so that I knew I could do my own tax return.But I just thought, no, don't do it because you'll get it wrong and then you'll get into trouble and it's just not worth it really. So yeah, I mean people do do their own tax returns but you know, hey, email me about it and I can talk to you about it.

So, so what, what red flags? Would you. Okay, let me rephrase the question. Elan tax has quite a good. Well, elan tax has a very good reputation.There are good accountants and there are bad accountants.

Well, okay, let me, Can I give you one answer? We are very proactive. So you get on the day response to your emails that you have an account manager, anytime you have a question, you just.Most people email these days. I mean hardly anyone picks up the phone. But you can phone.But if you want to talk to your account manager, but you can email them, they'll respond to you on that day.Yeah, I mean I think that's what we're particularly good at, that we have the resources, we have all the software, we have, you know, like you say, oh, it's a headache because there's all this paperwork and you know, you've got receipts and where's the receipts and how do you bunch them up and all that.

So would you say. So you would say then that the difference between a bad or okay accountant and somebody who's good is the proactivity.A proactive accountant will say, where's your stuff? You need to do this. These are the implications.

I think it's really important.I mean I, you know, anecdotally I was talking to somebody, I was out doing socializing and she said to me, oh, I've been trying to get a hold of the, these accountants and I ring them and they say, oh, you're ringing me at the wrong time. And she she got so frustrated with it, she ended up doing it herself.You know, it's not only doing things on time, it's doing things correctly as well.You know, we have the resources, we have the experience, expertise in our firm to get your numbers right and to help you out, whether it's business growth or whether it's just a tax return. That's simple. Tax return, that's fine.

Do you have advice for somebody? If like you're, you're running a business, is there a good practice for you?Should you be putting it every week, every month, like putting your stuff together or daily? What's your sort of take on that? Like to send something over?Because obviously at the end of the year, I may have had this very conversation with your land tax. One year. Why, you know, you, you submit it in two days time, where's your paperwork?

So no idea what you're talking about.

Wonder why it failed. So it's a good practice advice that you could give somebody.

It's so individual, you know, it's so hard for me to say because it depends on the business. So it's very hard. But as I say, I mean, we will always chase you for the paperwork.You'll get remind, you know, like for instance, with tax returns, we send out emails in October and then we send out lists of what we need in your tax. You know, this is what we need and everything.You know, we do have clients who leave it to the last day, but these days actually not so many, to be honest with you.

So, Timma, thank you very much.It's been interesting and of course we will provide your details on the website talkinghospitality.com and of course below in the link, if you're listening on one of your favorite podcast platforms. But yeah, tax can be very taxing, can't it?

You can make a lot of money, guys.

We can make it. Well, you can. Thank you very much. Have a lovely rest of your day. Thank you so much for coming in.And if anybody does have tax questions, please do get in touch with Zema and she'll be very willing to help.

Thank you. It was lovely.

Thanks, Sema.

Elan tax emphasizes the importance of financial forecasting.

Oh, yes.

Talking Hospitality would like to remind all viewers that we, we are in no way offering financial advice.

Yeah, Sema, thank you very much.

Thank you.

A huge thank you to our brand partners, Graphic Kitchen and Leisure Jobs, for their continued support of Talking Hospitality Graphic Kitchen bring creative storytelling to life. Helping hospitality brands stand out in a crowded market.Leisure Jobs connects top talent with best opportunities in the industry, making it the go to platform for hospitality careers. We're proud to have them both on board.

The voices, you know, Timothy, Tracy and Joe on the show.