Our thoughts and musings

It’s the age-old dilemma that puzzles business owners around the world and is a question we often receive from clients. Should you pay yourself a salary or dividends?

Now we love Xero. A bit strong maybe, but we decided some time ago that we were going to be a 100% Xero practice. Mainly due to the fact that we wanted to be really, really good at using just one accounting package which we could heartily recommend to our clients.

One of my inspirations is Pete Adeney, aka Mr Money Moustache. Having retired at the grand old age of just 30, he’s since started a personal finance blog. How did he do it? By saving hard and planning effectively. His website is massively popular and now extends far wider than personal finance, encompassing issues such as family, business and general well-being.

For some years, you could be forgiven for thinking that the government didn’t want people to have company cars. The benefit in kind (BiK) tax rates on company cars have steadily been hiked and now are as much as 37%. A mid-range BMW 3 Series could cost £400-£500 a month in tax alone.

Goodbye 2020! Good riddance. 2021 can’t get any worse so here’s to the good times!

To maximise the return from Profit First, it’s generally required to set up a number of different bank accounts in order to allocate the cash received. This can present a challenge owing to the monthly fee most UK banks charge for using their accounts. One of the principles of Profit First is frugality, so if a bank charges £5/ month and you have 5 accounts, that’s a bill of £300 a year. Definitely something we’d rather avoid.