Get that happy feeling. We had an offsite day in Worklab recently to review what went well last year and what didn’t go that well so that we can make improvements in the areas where we are weak on.
One of the major things that I noticed was some of the very positive things that we helped our clients with and the purpose of the blog was to highlight some of the things that the CF crew did last year and how beneficial this turned out to be for our clients.
This is just a flavour of some of the great wins our clients had.
First Home Purchase
A long standing client of ours and her husband finally purchased her first home in Ireland after emigrating here from Eastern Europe in 2002. We were all delighted that this happened for her. This was the third house she had tried to purchase in 2019 and therefore the third mortgage application we were helping her with. There was great work done and it was a team effort, not just internally, but with AIB and Mullins Treacy in Tramore.
Outstanding Tax returns
A new client got a letter from Revenue to submit tax returns as she had been carrying on a business at home and hadn’t got her tax affairs up to date. This caused her huge worry and she was losing sleep. She called into us and we got her registered for taxes and got her outstanding tax returns filed. Given her circumstances we were able to advise her that she would qualify for Start Your Own Business relief and because of this and some tax credits her husband hadn’t claimed we were able to secure a tax refund for her for two tax years. She was absolutely delighted with the outcome as all her tax affairs were now in order and it hadn’t cost her anything.in additional taxes due to the tax relief and tax credits available.
Business Transfer
A client who was trading as a limited company came to us last year. He had 5 years outstanding Corporation Tax [CT] returns and had missed the CRO filing deadline so the company would need an audit which would have been expensive and time consuming given the circumstances. We were able to get the CT returns up to date and then transfer his business to a new company and begin the process of getting the original company into liquidation. He will have a clean bill of health in the new company and not have the stress and cost of having to do audited accounts
Business Purchase & Sale
A couple came to us as they were looking to sell their business to the existing management team. We did a company valuation initially. After that there was a long period of negotiations with both sides and their respective solicitors and a deal was finally agreed. We worked out a tax plan to minimize the Capital Gains tax payable by the sellers and helped the purchasers with acquiring finance. It was fantastic to see the sellers getting great value for their business while at the same time the purchasers have acquired a super business which we will help them with in the future
Succession Plan
Another client of ours was able to see a Succession Plan that was started in 2016 come to fruition last year. This enabled him to pass on part of his business in a very tax efficient manner. This was a complicated restructure that was put in place so that rental properties were taken out of the main trading company to ensure that the main tax reliefs such as Retirement relief and Business Property relief could be used to the full when passing shares in the trading company to his daughter. Our client is extremely happy that a second generation company is now passing to the 3rd generation.
PRSI Savings
A limited company client came to us last year with Revenue issues around expenses, an overdrawn directors’ current account and BIK issues. Revenue was looking for their pound of flesh and more. We did a review of the last two tax years to sort out all outstanding tax issues and were able to get a reduction in payroll taxes and corporation tax and we also noticed that the two owner directors were on an incorrect PRSI class. Spotting this alone will save them close to €20k. They were very happy as the overall expected tax bill was significantly reduced due to great work here by the tax team.
There were many more examples of how we have helped our clients but the above ones stood out for the team here as many of the CF crew were involved across, tax, accounts, audit, company valuations, company secretarial, payroll and admin work. We enjoy this because there have been successful outcomes and our clients are very happy with the results. They value the work that we do by paying our fees on time and by letting us know now and again.
Not all good news
However not all outcomes are successful for our clients as we sometimes have to tell them bad news. If we spot something that isn’t correct whether done by ourselves or a previous adviser we advise them that it needs to be fixed. In some of these cases they will need to pay additional taxes to Revenue. The reason we do this is to protect our clients and be honest with them so that they know we are looking after their business affairs correctly. One client recently asked us if we had any whiskey to help numb the pain of the news we gave him!
If you need help in your business then please contact Deirdre on 051 396703 and she will point you in the right direction
