Blog
Home / Blog
Stories & guides
Notes on tax, profit, and a more valuable business.
Short, plain-English reads for owner-managed UK businesses. No jargon walls, no filler.
Can you put an overseas business trip through your agency?
Flights, hotels and food on a genuine business trip can be allowable. Add enough personal time to the itinerary and HMRC can challenge the individual costs, or the whole trip.
Read more ›
Is gold really exempt from Capital Gains Tax in the UK?
Some gold coins are exempt from CGT, and for a reason most people get wrong. Gold bars, ETFs, foreign coins and gold held in a company are a different question entirely.
Read more ›
Three tax reliefs most marketing agency owners never look at
SEIS, R&D tax credits and EMI share schemes. Three reliefs written into law that agency owners routinely leave alone, usually because nobody ever told them the conditions.
Read more ›
Earning over £60,000 and claiming Child Benefit? What HMRC takes back
The High Income Child Benefit Charge is based on the highest earner in the household, not the household total. That is why one parent on £80,000 can lose all of it while a couple on £59,000 each keeps the lot.
Read more ›
Which allowances let an agency owner take money tax-free?
Four allowances worth knowing, with the 2026/27 figures: the trading allowance, the personal allowance, the capital gains annual exempt amount and the ISA limit. Using them properly before the tax year ends is the whole trick.
Read more ›
Is tax avoidance illegal? The difference that actually matters
Most people think tax avoidance is illegal. It is tax evasion that is illegal. Here is where the line sits, what HMRC means when it uses the word avoidance, and why proper planning is the route that survives scrutiny.
Read more ›
Does HMRC pay people for reporting serious tax evasion?
HMRC's Strengthened Reward Scheme can pay a share of the tax recovered in serious cases. It is aimed at very large evasion and avoidance, not at everyday business tax, and it says something useful about where HMRC is putting its effort.
Read more ›
What happens if HMRC finds a personal cost in your agency's expenses?
Trying to claim personal costs as business expenses is exactly how you open yourself up to an HMRC investigation. Here is what actually happens when HMRC disallows one, and why the cost is rarely limited to the expense itself.
Read more ›
Does HMRC really look at your social media before opening an enquiry?
HMRC compares what you report with other information available about you. If the lifestyle on your feed does not match the income on your return, that mismatch can be the thing that gets noticed.
Read more ›
Profitable on paper, empty in the bank: where did your agency's cash go?
An invoice becomes income the day you raise it, not the day it clears. Which means you can owe tax on money that is still sitting in a client's account.
Read more ›
Why is your agency not growing? Look at what you spend on tools
Tool spend creeps up one subscription at a time and nobody owns the total. An expense being deductible is not the same as it being worth paying, and the arithmetic on that is less forgiving than most founders assume.
Read more ›
Lost the receipt: does HMRC still let you claim the expense?
This is not a question about whether the cost was allowable. It is a question about whether you can prove it was, and the answer depends on the size of the cost and who you paid.
Read more ›
Is that £5k course a business expense or a personal one?
Training that sharpens skills you already use in the agency is normally deductible. Training that buys you a new career is capital, and HMRC has case law to back that up.
Read more ›
Netflix, Audible, YouTube Premium: which subscriptions can your agency claim?
Two agencies can pay for the same subscription and only one of them gets the deduction. The deciding factor is whether there is any private benefit attached, because a part claim is usually not on offer.
Read more ›
Can you give your staff a phone without creating a taxable benefit?
One phone per employee, on a contract in the company's name, is exempt from income tax and National Insurance. Change either of those two facts and the treatment changes with it.
Read more ›
Can your agency put branded hoodies and staff uniform through the books?
Plain clothes you could wear anywhere are disallowed, however smart they make you look on stage. Clothing carrying a permanent company logo is a different argument, and kitting out staff has its own exemption.
Read more ›
Can you close your agency, take the cash, and start again?
Shutting the old company, leaving the tax bill behind and reopening under a new name is a plan HMRC has already legislated against. Here is what actually happens if you try it.
Read more ›
Can you reclaim VAT you paid before your agency was VAT registered?
Not while you are unregistered. But once you register, VAT on goods you still hold can go back four years and VAT on services six months, with some costs blocked either way.
Read more ›
Can you reclaim the VAT on your agency's laptops, cameras and chairs?
If your agency is VAT registered, the VAT on business equipment is usually recoverable. Private use and the Flat Rate Scheme are the two things that cut the claim down.
Read more ›
Can too much cash in your agency cost you Business Asset Disposal Relief?
Business Asset Disposal Relief only applies if your company is a trading company. Let cash and investments build up and HMRC can argue it is not, which changes the rate you pay when you sell.
Read more ›
How do you sell your agency without getting destroyed by tax?
Two structures come up again and again before a sale: selling through a holding company, or selling while non-UK resident. Each solves a different problem, and one of them has a five year trap in it.
Read more ›
What do you actually give away when you pay someone in shares?
Paying a consultant in equity protects cash flow and quietly costs you control. Drop below 75% and there are decisions you can no longer make on your own.
Read more ›
Does your company pay corporation tax on dividends it receives?
Dividends received by a UK company, from the UK or overseas, are usually exempt from corporation tax. Receive £50,000 and the company can usually keep £50,000, with a few exceptions worth knowing.
Read more ›
Is travelling to your own office a business expense?
Travel to your normal place of work is not a business expense, and a temporary office can quietly become your normal one. Two numbers decide it: 24 months and 40%.
Read more ›
How can you give your agency staff a gift without creating a tax bill?
The trivial benefits rules let you give an employee a gift worth up to £50 tax free while the agency still claims the cost. Directors get their own annual cap, and one common mistake breaks the whole thing.
Read more ›
Can you claim the costs you paid before your agency started trading?
Most agency owners only claim costs from the day the first invoice went out. Qualifying pre-trading expenses can reach back up to seven years before trading began.
Read more ›
Can you put Wimbledon or football tickets through your limited company?
Whether match tickets are an allowable expense comes down to one question: who is coming with you. Same seat, different guest, completely different tax treatment.
Read more ›
Want to reward a key employee without a 40% tax hit? Consider EMI options
A £40k bonus can lose a big share to income tax and National Insurance before it reaches your best employee. EMI share options can turn the same reward into a capital gain instead.
Read more ›
Your agency's subcontractors: are they really subcontractors?
A lot of agencies hire subcontractors while treating them like employees. If the reality looks like employment and you are not running payroll, HMRC can come asking.
Read more ›
If your agency has employees, do not miss the £10,500 National Insurance relief
Employment Allowance lets eligible employers cut their employer's National Insurance bill by up to £10,500 a tax year. There is one trap that stops most one-person agencies claiming it.
Read more ›
The VAT Flat Rate Scheme: worth it for an agency, or not?
If your agency is VAT registered but your VATable costs are minimal, the Flat Rate Scheme can leave cash in the business. If you are caught by the limited cost business rules, it does the opposite.
Read more ›
Starting a side hustle while employed: sole trader or limited company?
If you already earn well from a job, a side hustle's profit lands on top of your salary as a sole trader. Put it through a limited company and the starting point is very different.
Read more ›
Your company made a capital loss. Here is what you can do with it
A company capital loss goes against capital gains in the same accounting year, and anything left over carries forward indefinitely. What it will never do is reduce your trading profits.
Read more ›
Made a loss? You can carry it back and reclaim the corporation tax you already paid
Made a loss this year? A trading loss can be carried back against the previous 12 months of profit, so corporation tax you have already paid can come back to you as cash.
Read more ›
Sold a business car? Your tax bill depends on how you claimed the running costs
Sell a car you have used in the business and the tax position turns entirely on whether you claimed Capital Allowances or Mileage Allowance. One method can add tax on the sale. The other never does.
Read more ›
Rented out your home before selling? You may still owe no capital gains tax
You do not need to pay any capital gains tax on the sale of your house, if it has been your main home the whole time you owned it. Rent it out first, and the rules change, unless you know the exemption that can bring the whole gain back into relief.
Read more ›
Laptop tax relief: repairs, new MacBooks, and the Annual Investment Allowance
Your laptop can cut your tax bill, but repairs and a brand-new machine are treated differently. Here is how each one works for an agency owner, and why the Annual Investment Allowance usually gives you the full relief upfront.
Read more ›
Selling stocks and shares as an agency owner: the tax, in plain English
Sell shares at a profit and the taxman wants a slice. Here is what capital gains tax, dividend tax, and Business Asset Disposal Relief actually mean for an agency owner, plus the one shelter most people underuse.
Read more ›
How to reduce your agency's corporation tax (legitimately)
Legitimate ways a UK marketing agency can bring its corporation tax bill down, what actually reduces taxable profit, and why dividends do not.
Read more ›
How to choose a tax adviser for your marketing agency
Searching for a tax adviser for your UK marketing agency? Here is how to judge one on specialism, credentials, and planning, and what genuinely good looks like.
Read more ›
The 60% tax trap, and why agency owners keep hitting it
Between £100,000 and £125,140 of income, an odd quirk of the UK system taxes every extra pound at an effective 60 percent. Here is why it happens, and why agency founders hit it so often.
Read more ›
You live abroad but own a UK agency. Where does the tax land?
You can live overseas and still own a UK marketing agency, but the company's tax and your personal tax are two separate questions. Here is how they split, in plain terms.
Read more ›
VAT when your agency has overseas clients
Do you put VAT on an invoice to a client in the US or the EU? For most agency services the answer turns on where your client belongs, not where you are.
Read more ›
Three tax moves for agency owners in 2026/27
Three straightforward, legitimate moves for UK agency owners this tax year: a salary set to your allowance, tax-free company interest, and your ISA allowance.
Read more ›
AI replaced his bookkeeper. It cost £20k in extra tax.
One agency owner automated his bookkeeping with AI. It treated expenses as income and left his accounts unbalanced, pushing his tax bill around £20k too high.
Read more ›
Set up in Dubai and pay no tax? Optimise your UK position first
Before you move your agency to Dubai for a zero-tax life, get your UK position efficient first, and understand the UK rules that can follow you abroad.
Read more ›
If capital gains tax rises, what should agency owners do?
There is speculation that capital gains tax could be aligned with income tax rates. Nothing is confirmed, but if you plan to sell assets soon, it is worth planning now.
Read more ›
Why you should not use Claude for your taxes
AI is brilliant at sounding certain. Tax is the one place where confident and wrong is the most expensive combination there is.
Read more ›
What your agency can actually claim as an expense: a 2026 checklist
Most agencies under-claim, not over-claim. As work has gone remote and software-heavy, the list of legitimate business expenses has quietly grown.
Read more ›
You moved abroad. Do you still owe UK tax?
Booking a one-way flight does not end your tax relationship with the UK. Where you pay is decided by residence rules, not your postcode.
Read more ›
How much should an agency founder actually pay themselves?
Most founders treat their pay as a personal withdrawal rather than a business decision. Here is a cleaner way to think about salary, dividends, and what to leave in.
Read more ›
Plan your tax around the exit, not just the year-end
If the plan is to sell in five to ten years, the decisions you make now shape both your tax bill and your valuation. Year-end tidy-ups miss most of that.
Read more ›
VAT for agencies: where the money quietly leaks
VAT rarely gets founders excited, but the wrong scheme or a missed recharge quietly costs agencies real money every quarter.
Read more ›
Why clean books quietly raise your agency's valuation
Buyers pay more for businesses they can understand. The work that makes your numbers legible is the same work that makes them defensible.
Read more ›Prefer to just ask us directly?
Join the list and we will set you up with a consultation. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.