It is hard enough for you to run your business, without having to know the rules for tax and accounts for HP, leasing and buying equipment .

Our team understands that every financial decision you make is important, and where or how you spend your money matters. 

Some points to consider before making these decisions are:

1. Will you be able to cover any maintenance costs that will incur should you buy equipment outright?
2. Does your business have a good credit rating?
3. Is your cash flow consistent enough to sustain monthly payments?

Our specialists can assist you in considering these points and can calculate the tax and VAT effect of each of the options, as getting it right can save you money.

We can also let you know how your accounts will look if you take out HP, if you lease and if you buy.

Lewis Brownlee is here to help you.

How we can help:

If you would like to discuss your options with us, or would just like to speak to one of our Agricultural and Horticultural Specialists you can call us on 01243 782 423 or head to our contact page and they will be in touch!

The industry is constantly changing and farmers and horticulturalists have shown themselves to be adaptable and resilient in the face of this change. We can be your trusted partner in taking your business forward profitably.

Xero is a strong and flexible cloud-based tool to deal with your accounting. In addition, there are industry specific add-ons to help you with your business decisions.

These can help farmers track the income and costs of individual crops by season and by field. This can aid decisions such as whether to renew the lease on a field. They will also record your livestock and other products, tracking their profitability.

They take your data from Xero, so nothing has to be entered twice.

Figures from Xero can be used to create long-range projections. The scenarios can then be changed to provide information for decisions such as “Should I consolidate my debt?”, “Should I buy the neighbouring farm?” and how diversification will really affect your business’s figures.

You can then readily report management information for the bank or other lender.

Budget and actual can be compared in real time, in as much detail as you want. The key is, if you can’t measure, you can’t manage.

Change is hard. Lewis Brownlee can help make it easier for you.

If you have any questions, or would just like to speak to one of our Agricultural and Horticultural Specialists you can call us on 01243 782 423 or head to our contact page and they will be in touch!

Is your farming or horticultural company innovating to improve your business?

This could mean that you can claim research and development (R&D) tax relief… R&D is not only done by scientists and computer specialists.

Any innovation aimed at “making an advance in science or technology” can lead to tax relief. The project does not even have to work.

If your company pays corporation tax, you could get a reduction to your taxable profits of up to 230% of the R&D spend.

If your company is making losses at the moment and is small or medium sized, it may be possible to get up to one third of your R&D costs as a payable credit from HMRC.

If it is your first claim, it is possible to look at the previous 2 sets of accounts as well as the current ones.

R&D claims can be tricky and we can help you! 

Our agricultural and horticultural team of Christine Deacon and Melanie Phillips would be happy to help you!  You can call us on 01243 782 423 or head to our contact form and we’ll be in touch!

Have you got the cashflow that you need ?

Most blogs will talk about the bank loans you can get to recover from Covid 19, but what other sources of money are there to help your cashflow?

• First of all is tax reclaims on losses. If you are a company and have lost £100,000 this year, and you made £100,000 the previous year, potentially by carrying back your losses, we can get you a tax refund of £19,000. The figures for a sole trader or partnership may be even more dramatic. So if this could apply to you, we can get your accounts and tax computations prepared as soon as possible, so your tax refund claim can be made and the refund in your bank account.
• Secondly for limited companies is Research and Development tax credits. Lots of our  clients embrace innovation, so have the potential to claim R and D tax credits of up to a third of the relevant expenditure. To help our clients on this we are offering a free meeting to discuss the possibility of an R and D claim.
• The third thing to look at is how much are your accounting systems costing you? We are still taking on clients with old fashioned accounting   systems that not only cost too much in terms of licence fees, but also absorb way too much of your staff’s time. Our IT people would be happy to introduce you to how a modern system works for you.

Our agricultural and horticultural team of Christine Deacon and Melanie Phillips would be happy to help with any of the above, or if you are being forced down the bank loan route will support you with preparing a quality cashflow.

You can call us on 01243 782 423 or head to our contact form and we’ll be in touch!