There’s nothing quite as formidable as a kitchen full of Christmas dishes. It’s a familiar feeling – you’re full and content, you’ve got your feet up, festive Radio Times in hand… But the pots, plates and innumerable oven trays loom over proceedings.
It’s tempting to close the door on unpleasant tasks like these, but we all know deep down that we’re better off facing them head-on. They say the truth only hurts once, and it’s a maxim that applies whether you’re dealing with a sink-load of gravy-spattered dishes or taking your car for its MOT.
The same is true when it comes to your tax position. The fear that holds us back from other tasks again creeps in, because for many clients, tackling missed opportunities or changing tack feels like an admission of failure. None of us likes to think we’ve overpaid or lost out – even if it’s a minor misstep like not claiming an expense – so taking a close, hard look at your tax can be disconcerting. Last week, we took on a case in which a non-dental-specialist accountant’s shocking advice has cost the client about £500,000 over the last 10 years. It’s undoubtedly a bitter pill to swallow, but she can now own the situation and harness the £50k p.a. saving for the next decade.
It’s only by doing this, and trusting someone to help, that you can get in control of your finances. This may mean admitting you’ve made mistakes or spent another year coasting, but this acceptance forms the starting point for a better path forward. As a dentist, you’ll know that putting off an appointment when you have a niggling problem only makes it worse in the long run.
Revisiting your approach to tax doesn’t mean that your current accountant has done anything technically wrong; just that a run of the mill accountant isn’t set up for specialist tax insight. It’s like the old “all you can eat” dental plan. Paying a fixed fee for everything sounds great in theory, but in reality, very little dentistry happens; you’re more likely to see a managed decline. Or it’s only suitable for a low percentage of patients. Dentists taking on former retainer patients with a fresh pair of eyes often see people coming in with multiple issues. So, if your accountant isn’t geared towards tax work, chances are, you’re being quietly underserviced in this area.
This isn’t a slur – tax is a complex and highly skilled area, and ever-increasingly, best outcomes require cross-disciplines, which most accountants simply can’t offer. It takes client collaboration and deep insight, and as a one-off it doesn’t add asset value to your average accountancy firm. But at Hive, reducing tax for small and medium businesses is something we feel passionately about. We do offer ongoing tax and accountancy support, but we’re also delighted if we can help clients get to the point where they can harness every percentage point. And rather than working in cycles, like a traditional accountancy firm, we manage tax on a year-long basis, so you’re getting a real-time view of every possible opportunity.
This all leads me to an exciting point. Because we know how important mastering your tax is, we’re launching a new service called Fact Find and Design. This means that for a one-off fee of £1,800, we’ll analyse where you are and design a bespoke plan for you and your practice, tailored towards achieving your practice’s objective. What you do with these recommendations is up to you; we can help you implement them, or you can take them away for your existing accountant to action. Best of all, if we can’t save you money or find a way to achieve your objective, we’ll happily return your fee.
It sounds cliched, but there really is nothing to lose, and it doesn’t matter if you’re not already a Hive client. If you’re interested, just drop us a line so that we can talk things through in more detail.
