Summing Up - The official podcast from Lovewell Blake Chartered Accountants and Financial Planners!

James is rejoined by Financial Adviser Jon Matchett to cover all things pension related. Starting with tax incentives for investing in pensions, how to structure your affairs efficiently and how will new Inheritance Tax rules impact strategy. 

#financialplanning #finance #pension #podcast #retirement #retirementplanning 

Ed Passmore is a Tax Partner at Lovewell Blake and specialises in advising Landlords. In this episode Ed joins James to talk about both the structural and tax aspects of running a successful property business with a particular emphasis on limited company ownership, Inheritance Tax planning, Trusts and Capital Gains Tax when changing ownership.

#Podcast #Landlords #Property #Tax #InheritanceTaxPlanning #InheritanceTax #Ownership #LB1858 

Dom Smith returns to the podcast to talk about one of his passions – football finance. What are the different rules? How can some clubs appear to fall foul whereas others spend regularly, and what does it mean for your club? Dom and James dig into recent high-profile cases and compare the rules to everyday businesses.

#Football #FootballFinance #SportsFinance #Podcast #LB1858

From early 2026 smaller businesses and landlords will be required to report trading figures to HMRC electronically on a quarterly basis. Join the Lovewell Blake experts to understand who will be effected, what changes will be required and how to prepare. James talks to Ryan Lincoln and Mary Schofield to get the inside story from both the accounting and tax perspective.

#Podcast #Business #Finance #Tax #Income

Sadie Nicholls joins James again, this time to talk about international workers. Specifically Sadie considers which country tax is payable, how the social security rules don't always follow tax rules and what employers need to think about if your staff are working abroad.

#WorkingOverseas #TaxRules #InternationalWorkers #WorkingAbroad #LB1858 #podcast

In the first Business Leaders discussion James is joined by EDP Editor Richard Porritt to talk about the current state of the local economy, challenges in running one of the largest regional newspapers in the country and Richard’s personal journey as a journalist 

#Business #Podcast #MeetTheEditor #Finance #Norfolk #LB1858 

James talks to Sadie Nicholls about UK resident taxpayers who may have undeclared overseas income. Often a UK tax disclosure is required even if no tax is due. Sadie guides us through the reporting and compliance obligations. 

#InternationalTax #Tax #WorldwideTax #Overseas #Income #LB1858

Ryan Lincoln and Mary Schofield of Lovewell Blake explain Making Tax Digital for income tax: who it affects, what actually changes and how to get ready.

Making Tax Digital for VAT pushed a lot of businesses into cloud accounting for the first time, and plenty of them saw the benefits. Now HMRC is doing the same for income tax. In this episode of Summing Up, host James Shipp is joined by two Lovewell Blake colleagues, Ryan Lincoln and Mary Schofield, to work through what the change means for sole traders and landlords, and why there is no sense in leaving it until the last minute.

Along the way they cover:

• What Making Tax Digital for income tax actually asks of you, and the one thing it does not change about when you pay your tax
• Why HMRC is bringing it in when there is no extra tax to collect, and what Mary thinks it is the tip of
• Who is caught and who is not, including why landlords who hold property in a limited company are outside it
• The gross income threshold, when it drops, and what the quarterly reporting calendar looks like in practice
• Spreadsheet or software: the simple route, the proper route, and why Mary thinks one of them is only putting off the inevitable
• What a soft launch means for businesses doing this for the first time
• What Lovewell Blake can do, from setting you up on the right system to taking the whole thing off your hands

The message from all three is the same: treat the obligation as an opportunity. Businesses that moved to cloud accounting for VAT found they could see how they were trading, where the cash was and what the tax bill was likely to be at any point in the year, rather than finding out long after the year had ended.

Their advice for anyone affected: work out now whether you are caught, look at the options with your accountant well before the first quarter is due, and choose a system that suits the way your business works rather than the one that just gets you over the line.

James, Ryan and Mary all work on Making Tax Digital regularly and their details are on the Lovewell Blake website. Hear more episodes of Summing Up at https://www.lovewell-blake.co.uk/podcasts

Chapter markers

00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:50 What we learned from Making Tax Digital for VAT
00:03:30 What Making Tax Digital for income tax actually is
00:04:45 Why HMRC is bringing it in: the tip of the iceberg
00:05:51 Who is affected, the threshold and when reporting starts
00:08:03 Spreadsheet or software: how your records need to change
00:09:43 No reason to leave it until the last minute
00:10:30 How Lovewell Blake can help, and the message to take away

Host: James Shipp 

Guest: Ryan Lincoln 

Guest: Mary Schofield

John Matchett of Lovewell Blake Financial Planning on business protection: what happens to a business and a family if the owner dies or cannot work.

Most business owners spend their time making money, meeting the bills and looking after their staff. Far fewer ask what would happen if they, a partner or a key employee were suddenly out of the picture. In this episode of Summing Up, host James Shipp puts that question to John Matchett, a consultant with Lovewell Blake Financial Planning who advises sole traders, partnerships and limited companies.

Along the way they cover:

• The risks most small and medium sized businesses overlook, and why the “what happens if” conversation starts with death or incapacity
• Where the money comes from to replace a key employee when the business already runs close to the wire
• What a sole trader’s family needs if the only income stops, and the difference between a lump sum and an income protection plan
• What happens to a partner’s share of the business if they die before retirement, and who could end up sitting across the table from the remaining owners
• Why a partnership or shareholder agreement on its own is not enough, and what a cross option agreement adds
• How trusts get money to a family faster than probate, the tax risk in putting premiums through the business, and how a time limited policy compares with insuring the family pet

Whatever the structure of the business, the starting point is the same: work out the actual risks, decide what you and the business would need, and put provision in place before the worst happens.

John’s advice for every business owner: look at it even if you do nothing straight away, start with the key events rather than covering everything at once, make the agreements legally watertight with a solicitor, and take specialist tax advice before the premiums go through the business.

Hear more episodes of Summing Up at https://www.lovewell-blake.co.uk/podcasts

Shaun Davison of Lovewell Blake explains which business expenses you can claim, which you cannot, and why the answer is rarely a simple yes or no.

“Can I put that through the business?” is one of the questions accountants hear most. In this episode of Summing Up, host James Shipp puts it to Shaun Davison, a manager in Lovewell Blake’s Norwich office, and together they work through the costs that earn tax relief, the ones that do not, and the ones that should never have reached the accounts at all.

Along the way they cover:

• The one test HMRC applies to every expense, and why the shirt Shaun is wearing fails it
• Fines, penalties and client entertaining, and why taking your best customers to the football is not a business cost in HMRC’s eyes
• Staff entertaining, where the company gets the deduction but the staff can end up with a tax bill
• Why a sole trader can claim a share of their car, phone and home office, and a limited company director cannot
• Jeans, suits and branded polo shirts, and the clothing claims that have failed in front of HMRC
• What a compliance check looks like in practice, told through a garage client with a forecourt full of courtesy cars
• The personal costs that end up in drawings or the director’s loan account, and the friend who said you could put your meals through the company

Whether you run a limited company, trade as a sole trader or work in a partnership, the rule turns out to be the same: wholly and exclusively for the business, or it is not a business expense.

Key takeaways:

• An expense is only allowable if it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the business, and anything with a duality of purpose fails that test whatever structure you trade through
• Fines, penalties and client entertaining are not deductible, even when they feel like a cost of doing business
• Staff entertaining can be deductible for the business and still create a taxable benefit for the people who enjoyed it
• Sole traders and partners can claim a business proportion of mixed use costs; a company cannot, and private use is dealt with through benefits in kind instead
• Keep the evidence for grey area expenses as you go, because an HMRC compliance check can start from the assumption that private use exists, and defending your position costs money even when you have done nothing wrong

Shaun’s advice for every business owner: keep accurate and complete records, know your filing obligations across corporation tax, self assessment, VAT and PAYE, and work with an adviser who tells you when the rules change.

Hear more episodes of Summing Up at https://www.lovewell-blake.co.uk/podcasts