Many landlords are missing out on opportunities to minimise their tax bill by poor organisation, says Hamish Edwards, co-founder and UK MD of Xero online accounting software.
London, UK, August 13, 2008 — A solid set of financial records and good advice from your tax advisor are the keys to playing it smart at tax time,†says Edwards who is also a Chartered Accountant. Unfortunately many smaller operators let their accounts get away from them – their accountant spends most of their time compiling information, just to tell them how much tax to pay, instead of spending time finding tax advantages.â€
Xero is designed to make it easy, dare we say fun, to do your books. “That might be a bold claim†say Edwards, “but we do have proof of people telling us that they actually like doing their books now, because with Xero it is easy and they understand it. A common complaint of old installed software was that is made users feel dumb. Xero is designed for the non accountant and gives them the information when and where they need it. It so simple, but all great ideas generally are.â€
We have a number of accounting firms that are using Xero with their smaller clients and they find it’s a real improvement. Because the numbers arrive perfectly in order they are able to spend less time on compliance and re-entering information and focus on the far more important things – like working out how to save their clients tax.
Edwards says that landlords who want to get the best deal, need to be sure they talk to their accountant about:
1. Getting tax relief on part of your home mortgage.
2. Hunting down all possible allowances, e.g. travel costs
3. Turning losses into tax advantage
4. Using your spouse or partner’s income tax bands
5. Using your spouse or partner’s Capital Gains Tax exemption
6. Whether they are eligible to recoup CGT paid in the past
7. Getting the smartest ownership structure
8. Insuring against costly tax inquires
9. Passing property to the next generation tax free
10. Avoiding stamp duty entirely when buying new property
Xero provides small businesses and their advisers with one, up to date, easy to use, instantly accessible set of accounts and business information.
* You can view this item, along with other Xero news at http://blog.xero.com/
* Learn more about how Xero can help you http://www.xero.com/overview/
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Contact:
Lucy Whittington
Xero
London, UK
0800 085 3719
[email protected]
http://www.xero.com
