Last week, we set off on a Hive road trip to attend the British Dental Conference & Dentistry Show in Birmingham. Events like this are a great chance to meet new people, as well as getting together with lots of our long-standing clients. During the show, we had many interesting conversations, which were often sparked by the message displayed on our stand:

Dentists pay too much tax. Hive’s unique approach regularly saves clients £50,000 per year.

Many passers-by stopped to look at this, and a record amount popped in to find out more. What, exactly, is this unique approach, and how can we save you this much money? Is it a product or scheme, or one specific tax planning action that we suggest you adopt?

We help clients regularly achieve savings of this size simply through the way that we operate. It’s not about promoting a product – instead, it’s our overall approach that’s so different. Within this, there are three main strands:

1. Understanding the situation

When a client first joins us, we begin by going through a personal budget exercise. In this, we’ll analyse their tax situation, going beyond the business figures to consider their income and outgoings as a household.

Quite often, we can easily see gaps and opportunities that have been missed by previous accountants, who might not have been proactively looking at things on their behalf. This then forms a strong starting point for everything else that follows.

2. Being data led

We strongly encourage our clients to keep their books up to date, so that they, and we, always have current data available. Not only does this aid them in running their business, but it also helps us to identify tax-saving opportunities for them.

Then, if they have any plans for the business, we can advise on how these might impact it, as well as advising on whether there’s a more tax-efficient way of approaching changes. There’s often more than one way of doing things – usually, with one of these ways costing a lot more in tax. If we don’t have the data, it’s very hard to help people plan.

3. Encouraging communication

For us, communication is key. We speak to clients at several points throughout the year, and actively encourage them to contact us to discuss any questions or ideas – it’s always easier for us to plan, rather than fix.

Like many accountants, we hold a meeting at the end of the year to talk through a client’s accounts before they’re signed off. But for us, this is probably the least important conversation that we have. One key milestone is a meeting at the start of each new tax year, to plan taxes for the coming year and check for any opportunities at the end of the current year. We also hold an annual tax review, to ensure that we’re speaking regularly and factoring in any developments. At other points during the year, our team will also review clients’ bookkeeping and check the data for accuracy. If we spot anything at this point, we’ll get in touch again.

We know that this strong and proactive communication is something our clients really appreciate. Some of the most common complaints we hear from new or potential clients are that they couldn’t get hold of their previous accountant, and that they only got a response if they asked for something. We also hear of clients who had to take suggestions to their accountant – whereas we prefer to proactively seek out next steps and be the ones to communicate these.

Being led by data, and leading on communications, are therefore at the heart of our unique approach. It’s hard to quantify exactly what an individual’s tax savings are, but we know that we regularly save up to £50,000 for new clients joining us.

The ways we save this tax won’t be the same for each person; the process could involve incorporating, structuring pensions more efficiently, making investments the right way, or not taking more dividends than you need to. If you’re buying a practice, it might be doing so using the right tax structure, so that you’re not wasting money on paying down your debt in the wrong way. Every case is different, but we’re effective at identifying where past advisors might have missed opportunities. Over 90% of clients save tax when joining Hive.

If Hive sounds like the right fit for you, and you’re keen to talk about how you can make significant tax savings, get in touch with us.