Professional Services

As well as compliance services, we can provide strategic tax advice to help you navigate the myriad taxation issues that arise during the life of a professional practice. These include:

• Partnership or LLP?
• What are the tax consequences of partners joining, leaving or retiring from the practice?
• What are the tax risks of having “salaried partners”?
• What tax and VAT issues arise in respect of property owned or occupied by the partnership?
• What are the most tax-efficient ways to finance the business?

Our tax compliance team can give you the peace of mind that comes from knowing that all the compliance obligations of the firm and of the partners are in safe hands.

More than that, we can advise on the myriad taxation issues that arise during the life of a professional practice. Partnership or LLP? Is there a place for a service company? What are the tax consequences of partners joining, leaving or retiring from the practice? Are there tax-efficient ways to undertake mergers or acquisitions? Should you be carrying goodwill on the balance sheet? What are the tax risks of having “salaried partners”? What tax and VAT issues arise in respect of real property owned or occupied by the partnership? What are the most tax-efficient ways to finance the business? The list goes on.

As a professional partnership ourselves, we have experienced all of these issues and others. In fact, we’ve literally “written the book”: one of our partners wrote the authoritative Tolley’s Tax Digest on Partnership Tax. So you can be sure that we know what we’re talking about.

Our team is experienced in detecting even minor breaches of the rules and is able to advise you of any potential weaknesses in your systems. We can help you improve your systems, making them more efficient to prevent serious breaches in the future.

We ensure that our team is technically up to date and can advise you on any changes to the rules and the practical implications these may have for your business.

The rules stipulate that reconciliation of clients’ accounts should be done at least every five weeks. Computerised systems are essential and we can advise on suitable IT solutions.

Our team has considerable expertise in forensic accounting and other deeply analytical matters. We have been instructed in the past in a wide range of specialist forensic accounting assignments including those in the support of divorce settlement negotiations, civil claims, defending criminal charges, and assessment of commercial enterprise as part of portfolio risk classification.

If a complex issue requires skilful mathematical and commercial analysis, we enjoy rising to the challenge of delivering a succinct, non-technical solution that can be easily understood by the appropriate audience.

We also get involved in more specialist litigation support work, assisting in analysing the financial impact of various happenings to help with the quantification of claims and counterclaims, defences and settlements. Howard Graff has considerable experience in this field. He has given evidence in the High Court and, together with a number of our other partners, has authored a number of reports as expert.

A challenge for solicitors posed by the Legal Services Act 2007 is the declining dependence on transactional business and the building of enduring client relationships.

An area which complements solicitors’ mainstream work is financial advice. More enterprising law firms are increasingly seeking to align themselves with financial advisers to provide a more comprehensive service to their clients.

We have highlighted many areas in which solicitors’ advice may be incomplete without the input of a financial adviser. These include:

• Estate planning
• Use of IHT reliefs and exemptions including advising on trusts
• Tax planning for expatriates and non-domiciles
• Marriage, partnerships, separation and divorce
• Care fees planning and advice for the elderly
• Equity release
• Pensions and estate planning
• Shareholder protection
• Portfolio construction
• The impact of tax on trustee investment
• Personal injury trusts and periodical payments
• Investing for clients who lack mental capacity

Our BKL Wealth Management team has many years of experience in advising both personal and corporate clients on efficient planning to meet their future financial needs and preserving valuable assets. Our team has a wide range of skills and offers personally tailored financial advice.

We already have a number of developed relationships with other professional advisers and work on both fee based and commission based remuneration structures to best meet the needs of our clients.

For more information or help from one of our professional firms specialists, please contact us using our enquiry form.