Buzz Accounting

Employing your partner or your kids: the rules that actually apply

Paying a spouse or a teenager out of the business is legal, common and often sensible. It is also where small firms most reliably get minimum wage, PAYE and child employment law wrong.

Employing Family Members in a UK Small Business: The Rules Paying a spouse or a teenager out of the business is legal, common and often sensible.

What a lender actually sees in your bank statements

Most small business lending decisions now start with your bank feed, not your accounts. Here is what the underwriter counts, and what quietly gets an application declined.

What Lenders Look For in Your Business Bank Statements Most small business lending decisions now start with your bank feed, not your accounts.

Loan covenants: the clauses that can call in a loan you're paying on time

You can make every payment on time and still be in default. What covenants are, the three that catch small firms, and how to test yours before signing.

Business Loan Covenants: What You Are Actually Agreeing To You can make every payment on time and still be in default. What covenants are, the three that catch small firms, and how to test yours before signing.

The VAT registration threshold is £90,000 — but it's measured on a rolling twelve months, not your accounting year.

That trips up a lot of businesses. You can be comfortably under at your year end and over by August without anything unusual happening.

And registration backdates to when you crossed, so the VAT is owed whether or not you charged it.

When Do I Need to Register for VAT? | Buzz Accounting A plain-English UK guide to VAT registration: the £90,000 rolling threshold, the 30-day forward test, voluntary registration.

VAT schemes: which one actually saves you money

Flat rate, cash accounting and annual accounting solve three different problems. The thresholds, the arithmetic, and how to work out which one fits you.

VAT Schemes Explained: Flat Rate, Cash and Annual Accounting Flat rate, cash accounting and annual accounting solve three different problems. The thresholds, the arithmetic, and how to work out which one fits you.

Most small businesses aren't bad at chasing invoices because they lack a system. They're bad at it because it feels like begging.

So the email gets softened — "no rush at all" — and sent late.

What works is duller: terms agreed up front, invoice the day the work's done, chase on a diary rather than a mood, and keep it short. An invoice that's due isn't a favour you're asking for.

How to Chase Late Invoices Without Losing the Client Late payment is the quiet killer of UK small businesses. Here's how to get paid faster without turning every good client into an awkward one.

Selling to customers abroad: the VAT rules a UK small business actually needs

Zero-rated does not mean nothing to do, and services follow completely different rules to goods. Here is what a UK business has to get right the moment the customer is overseas.

Selling Abroad: UK VAT on Goods and Services Explained Zero-rated does not mean nothing to do, and services follow completely different rules to goods.

For a law firm, the annual accounts are the straightforward bit. The client account is where the hours go.

Separate rules, monthly reconciliations, residual balances, an annual report. It's specialist work and it doesn't wait — which is why it so often ends up done quickly by whoever is free rather than properly by someone who does it every month.

Accountants for Solicitors — Law Firm Accountants UK Specialist accountants for UK law firms: client account bookkeeping, SRA Accounts Rules compliance, partner tax and the annual Accountant's Report

Business confidence just hit a five-month high. That is a survey, not your order book.

Confidence is up four points, economic optimism up seven, and two-thirds of firms expect higher output. Underneath it is a number that points the other way — and it is the one that lands on your margin.

Lloyds Business Barometer August 2026: What Rising Confidence Means Confidence is up four points, economic optimism up seven, and two-thirds of firms expect higher output.

Own more than one company? Your corporation tax limits get divided between them.

One company: 19% up to £50,000 of profit. Two companies: that limit becomes £25,000 each. Three: £16,667 each.

That old property company or dormant-looking second business can quietly cost the one that's actually earning around £1,875 a year.

The 26.5% corporation tax rate nobody mentions Between £50,000 and £250,000 of profit, every extra pound costs 26.5p of corporation tax — not 19% and not 25%. The maths, the associated company trap, and what to do about it.