VABK Ltd

Company cars. Private medical. Interest free loans over £10,000. Gym memberships.

If your business provided benefits in kind during the 2025/26 tax year, they need to be reported to HMRC on a P11D.

The deadline is 6 July. The Class 1A National Insurance on those benefits is then payable by 22 July.

Miss it and the penalties start, and they grow the longer it is left. The good news is that with the right records it is a straightforward job, and we still have time to do it properly before the deadline.

If you are not sure whether you even need to file one, that is exactly the question to ask now rather than in July.

Not sure where you stand on P11D? Comment P11D below and we’ll send you a quick checklist, or message the page for a quote.

P60s for the 2025/26 tax year must be issued to all employees by 31st May 2026. Tomorrow is the deadline.

If you have not yet generated and issued your P60s, do it today.
Most payroll software generates P60s automatically from your year-end payroll data. If you are using Basic PAYE Tools (HMRC's free software), the P60 function is under the Employees section.

P60s can be issued digitally with the employee's consent or in paper format. Both are compliant.

If you are unsure how to generate them, or your payroll records for 2025/26 are incomplete — message us today. VABK can help.

Missing this deadline is a compliance failure. HMRC is increasingly active in investigating payroll non-compliance.

The Director's Loan Account (DLA) records money that flows between you and your company outside of formal salary and dividend payments.

If you take money from the company without going through payroll or declaring a dividend — for any reason — it shows as a debit on the DLA: money the company has lent to you.

If the DLA is overdrawn (you owe the company money) by more than £10,000 at your company's year end, it must be declared on your Self Assessment and you pay a benefit-in-kind tax charge on it.

If the overdrawn balance is not repaid within 9 months of the year end, the company pays an additional S455 tax charge of 33.75% of the outstanding amount. This is repayable when you repay the loan, but it is a significant cash flow hit.

Many directors do not realise their DLA is overdrawn until their accountant tells them at year end. By then, the options are limited.

If you are not sure about your DLA position — message us.

Before May closes:

1. P60s issued. By 31st May, every employee including director-employees must have received their P60 for 2024/25. If this is not done — it needs to happen by Sunday.

2. May payroll processed and submitted. Your RTI submission for May must be filed on or before the pay date. The PAYE payment follows by 19th June (electronic: 22nd June).

3. Your 2024/25 Self Assessment documents gathered. Bank statements, receipts, mileage records, P60s, rental income figures. If you start gathering now, the return itself is straightforward whenever you are ready.

Three actions. An hour of your time. A much cleaner June.
Message us if VABK can take any of these off your plate.

The profit and loss account shows you what your business earned and spent over a period. The balance sheet shows you what your business is worth at a point in time.

On your balance sheet: assets (what the business owns — cash, equipment, debtors), liabilities (what the business owes — loans, PAYE owed, VAT owed, directors' loan accounts), and equity (the residual value that belongs to shareholders).

Three numbers every director should know from their balance sheet: the current bank balance, the amount owed by debtors (outstanding invoices), and the total liabilities including tax owed but not yet paid.

If your retained profit is growing but your cash balance is shrinking, your balance sheet will tell you why. The P&L won't.

Message us if you want a clear explanation of your current balance sheet position.

A limited company director — a consultant with a turnover of around £120,000 — came to us for her annual accounts review. She had been with her previous accountant for four years.

In our first review we found: no Employment Allowance being claimed (saving: £5,000 in employer NI). Director salary set £4,000 above the optimal threshold, triggering unnecessary NI. No company pension contributions despite having a personal policy she was contributing to from post-tax income.

We restructured her salary, claimed the Employment Allowance, and set up a company pension contribution of £6,000 per year.

Year one combined tax saving: £4,800.
Not complicated. Not aggressive. Just the structures that should have been in place from the beginning.

Message us to book an onboarding review.

The Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) allows businesses to deduct the full cost of most plant and machinery from their taxable profits in the year of purchase, rather than spreading the deduction over several years.

The current AIA limit is £1 million per year — sufficient for the vast majority of small and medium businesses.

Qualifying items include: computer equipment, office furniture, machinery and tools, commercial vehicles, and most business equipment.

What does not qualify: cars (which are subject to capital allowances based on emissions), land and buildings, and some leased assets.

If your business has made capital purchases in 2026/27 that have not been put through correctly, this is worth reviewing with your accountant before year end.

Message us to check your capital allowances position.

Making Tax Digital for Corporation Tax (MTD CT) will require limited companies to keep digital records and file their corporation tax returns through MTD-compatible software.

HMRC has not yet confirmed a mandatory start date for MTD CT. The consultation process has been ongoing since 2021, and the most recent indications suggest a phased rollout starting no earlier than 2026.

What this means for limited companies now: the direction of travel is clear. Digital record-keeping is not optional long-term. The businesses that invest in good accounting software now — rather than waiting for a deadline — will find the eventual transition straightforward.

MTD for VAT is already live. MTD for Income Tax began in April 2026. MTD for Corporation Tax is the next phase.

VABK keeps all clients informed of upcoming compliance changes. Message us to discuss your current software setup.

Most small business owners have never formally reviewed their accountant. They inherited them, were referred to them, or chose them on price — and have never questioned whether the arrangement is still working.

Five questions to ask at your next meeting:

1. What is my estimated tax position for 2026/27 based on current figures?
2. Am I claiming all the deductions I am legally entitled to?
3. Is my business structure still optimal for my income level?
4. What should I be doing this quarter to reduce my tax bill?
5. What do I need to give you, and when, to avoid January stress?

If your accountant cannot answer all five confidently and specifically — that is useful information.

At VABK we answer all five as standard. Message us.

Turnover and revenue mean broadly the same thing: the total income your business generates before any costs are deducted. If you invoice £100,000 in a year, your turnover is £100,000.

Gross profit is turnover minus direct costs — the costs directly associated with delivering your product or service. Materials, subcontractor costs, direct labour.

Net profit is gross profit minus all your other operating costs — rent, salaries, accountancy, marketing, software, insurance. This is the most meaningful number for most small businesses.

The number you want to know: your net profit margin as a percentage of turnover. For a service business, 20% to 30% net margin is healthy. Below 10% means your cost structure needs attention.

Do you know your net profit margin for 2025/26?
Message us for a straightforward profit analysis.