Personal Tax and Private Client services

This is a very personal and trusted relationship so it’s not a straightforward question to answer. In our opinion, a personal tax adviser should be seeking to understand more about your personal circumstances, and that of your immediate family, to allow advice to be provided on matters relevant to you. This could be technical support around taxation, being part of the trusted team to support particular transactions or a sounding board for future plans. Whilst the service can be one of compliance (help with submitting tax forms) the real benefit comes from creating that relationship which allows more rounded advice to be provided.

There are often two distinct elements to wealth and pension planning. The first in understanding the diversification of investment you might need and the tolerance to risk. These areas are regulated and our connected company Lovewell Blake Financial Planning Limited and has a team qualified Independent Financial Advisers who can provide support and help in this area.

The second element is often around wealth structuring and how best to manage investments/assets for your short and long-term plans. These are very much advisory services we provide and having an understanding of your wealth, thoughts and main concerns will allow us to provide bespoke support to meet your needs. What might be right for one person is not necessarily right for the next, so establishing someone’s key objectives is important.

Not necessarily. If you feel confident to do so, you can create a Government Gateway account and complete your own return under the self-assessment regime. Some details of some sources of information, such as salary/pension paid under PAYE, should be on your online record already. You may receive summaries of these sources from other agents, such as a portfolio report from a stockbroker or a rental report from a letting agent. You will need to “self-assess” all relevant sources, either from those reports or by calculating income, expenditure and capital gains yourself, which will involve some level of understanding of the tax rules. If there are errors in the return, HMRC have powers to charge interest and penalties. If you do not have time or confidence to do this yourself, particularly if your affairs are complicated, engaging our tax compliance team can give you peace of mind that your compliance obligations have been met. In addition, our tax consultants can provide advice on tax planning opportunities, not only relating to your tax return, but also considering longer-term issues such as business succession planning, leaving or moving to the UK, selling or acquiring assets, and estate planning.

This depends on what type of records they are. It is often good practice to retain records for six years although certain information may need to be kept for longer and some for less time. It depends on what the records are. You should always take advice on how long specific records should be retained.

Our tax teams are very experienced and many have dedicated tax qualifications such as being Chartered Tax Advisers. We are therefore extremely capable professionals who, in addition, pride ourselves on getting to know your affairs so the best advice and support can be given.

This is the part of your income (or capital gain) which doesn’t attract a tax liability. The allowances for tax year 2022/23 are £12,570 (income tax) and £12,300 (capital gains tax).