Tax & Compliance
Personal Tax & Self Assessment
Self assessment is the clearest case in the profession for flexible capacity. Demand is heavily seasonal, the work is standardised, and the deadline is immovable. Hiring for a January peak is expensive; carrying that cost for twelve months is worse.
- Accountancy practices
The problem
The January problem
A tax department sized for January is over-staffed for eight months of the year. A department sized for the average is in crisis by mid-December. Most firms get through it with overtime, goodwill and a drop in review quality, then pay for it in staff turnover the following spring.
- Deadline pressure concentrates a year of work into six weeks.
- Late-arriving client records compress the window further.
- Rushed returns are where enquiry risk and professional indemnity exposure are created.
At a glance
- Service line
- Tax & Compliance
- Delivered for
- Accountancy practices
- Typical cadence
- Off-peak: Three to five working days per return from a complete pack. Peak (Nov to Jan): Reserved capacity agreed in advance, with a committed daily throughput. Surge: Additional reviewers added for the final fortnight where volume is booked ahead.
- Engagement models
- Available per job, on ad-hoc hours, or through a dedicated resource. Compare models.
Scope
Returns and schedules we prepare
Scope is agreed in writing before work starts and reviewed at each service review. Anything outside it is quoted separately, never absorbed and then invoiced later.
Return types
- SA100 individual returns with all standard supplementary pages
- SA800 partnership returns and partner allocations
- SA900 trust and estate returns
- Non-resident and split-year treatment computations
- Residence and domicile schedules, remittance basis calculations
Schedules and computations
- Employment, self-employment and partnership income
- Property income including furnished holiday lettings and finance cost restriction
- Capital gains computations, including UK property 60-day reporting
- Dividend, interest and investment income schedules
- Pension annual allowance, tapering and carry-forward calculations
- Gift Aid, EIS, SEIS and VCT relief claims
- Foreign income, double taxation relief and foreign tax credit claims
Control
- Prior-year comparison with variance explanation on every material movement
- Second-person review before the return reaches your team
- Draft client letter explaining the liability and payment dates
- Payments on account calculation and reduction advice where appropriate
Software
Platforms we work in for this service
We work inside your existing systems under named user accounts. If your stack is not listed, tell us and we will confirm whether we can support it straight away or need a ramp-up period.
- IRIS
- TaxCalc
- CCH Personal Tax
- Digita
- Taxfiler
- Capium
- BTCSoftware
The boundary
What stays with your firm
This matters more than the task list. A delivery partner that blurs this line creates regulatory exposure for you, so we state it explicitly on every engagement.
Yours, always
- The client engagement and engagement letter
- Professional judgement and final review
- Sign-off, submission authority and the fee
- Client advice and the client relationship
Ours
- Preparation, processing and documentation
- Internal second-person review before release
- Turnaround against the agreed timetable
- Rework at our cost where the error is ours
Questions
Personal Tax: what firms ask
How do you handle the January volume?
By booking it in advance. We agree an expected volume and a daily throughput with you in the autumn and reserve named resource against it. Capacity planned in September costs less and works better than capacity found in a hurry in December.
Who deals with the client?
Your firm, unless you ask otherwise. We prepare, reconcile and draft the covering letter; your team reviews, advises and submits under your agent authorisation.
Related
Services that usually move together
Most firms start with one service line. These are the ones that most often follow.
VAT & MTD
VAT returns prepared and reconciled to the ledger, plus the quarterly MTD for Income Tax cycle that has quadrupled client contact.
Read moreCorporation Tax
CT600 returns and computations prepared alongside the accounts, with the available reliefs identified and checked.
Read morePractice Support
The unbilled work that takes up your fee earners' time: records chasing, onboarding, workflow hygiene and deadline tracking.
Read moreNext step
Talk to us about personal tax.
Bring a real example, such as a live job, a difficult client file or a cycle you are behind on. A concrete case tells you far more about a provider than a capability slide does.
What to expect
- No obligation and no minimum commitment to talk
- A written proposal within five working days
- A paid pilot before any long-term arrangement