Accountants for Heswall businesses, landlords and individuals

We act for businesses, landlords and individuals in Heswall, Gayton, Pensby, Thingwall and Irby. There is no direct train from Heswall to our Birkenhead office, so most of this work is done online, by phone and by email.

Book your free call

What we handle for Heswall, Gayton, Pensby, Thingwall and Irby

Nothing in the list below needs a visit, though you are welcome to come in if you would rather.

Year-end accounts for small companies and for sole traders, including dormant companies and a first set where trading began part-way through the year. You see a draft and we answer your questions on it before we submit anything.

Corporation tax returns for one-person and family companies run from a house in Heswall, Pensby or Irby, where the question that actually needs settling is the boundary between the company's costs and the household's: use of home, the car, the broadband, and what the company can pay for without it becoming a taxable benefit on the director.

Nobody needs to drive Pensby Road and the A552 to hand over a bag of receipts. You photograph them, Hubdoc reads them into Xero, and we work from the same records you do, which also means a question in March can be answered in March rather than at the year-end.

Payroll where tips form part of the pay, as they do across much of the hospitality trade on Telegraph Road and down in the lower village. That usually means a tronc, the separate arrangement for pooling and sharing tips: HMRC has had to be notified when one is set up since 1 November 2024, and who decides the split determines whether National Insurance falls due on what is paid out. On a compulsory service charge it is due either way.

VAT for building, joinery and landscaping firms working on the large properties here, and for food and drink businesses in the town centre, where the rate turns on whether something is eaten in, taken away or sold cold. We also check that the scheme in use is still the right one, rather than the one inherited from a previous adviser.

Self Assessment for people whose income is not only a salary: a consultancy run alongside a job, dividends, rent, a drawdown pension, a gain on shares or on a second property. Higher-rate relief on personal pension contributions and Gift Aid is what gets missed most often on a return prepared in a hurry, and we check both every year.

Capital Gains Tax advice where a plot inside the garden of a large Heswall or Gayton house is sold, since private residence relief does not always cover land sold separately from the home. Relief is lost altogether if the land goes after the house, and the permitted area is normally half a hectare.

Rental accounts and tax where a flat or annexe has been carved out of a larger house, or a second property is let in Pensby, Thingwall or Irby. The first year is the one that needs care: costs met up to seven years before the first tenant moved in can still be claimed, and mortgage interest no longer comes off the rent but is given instead as a reduction in the tax bill at the basic rate, currently 20 per cent.

Why distance stops mattering

Heswall is the hardest place on the peninsula to reach us from: there is no direct train, and the drive takes 20 to 30 minutes depending on traffic. That is why we work in Xero and Hubdoc, with records sent in as they come up and the figures talked through by phone or video, so the distance makes no difference to the work or to how quickly you hear back.

How it works

Getting started

Start with a call

Half an hour on the phone covers what you run, be it a business, a property or both, where your records sit now, and what has to be filed and by when. There is no charge for it.

Get the price in writing

Then the quote, in writing, before any work starts: a single price for a one-off job such as a tax return or a set of accounts, or a monthly fee where there is a company, a payroll and VAT to keep running. It does not change unless the work does, and we tell you before it does.

Joining part-way through

Most people come to us in the middle of something, with a tenancy already running, a VAT quarter half gone or a company year that started in March. We pick it up where it stands, put the HMRC authorisations in place, and work back to a clean position rather than asking you to wait for a tidy start date.

FAQ

Questions we are asked

Do I have to come to Birkenhead?

No. Records are sent in online, figures are talked through by phone or video, and returns are approved electronically, so for most of the year there is no reason to travel. If you would rather come in, the office is at Second Floor, 61 Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, about seven and a half miles from the Telegraph Road shops, a drive of 20 to 30 minutes depending on traffic.

How do I get to you from Heswall, and where do I park?

By car it is about 20 minutes: Telegraph Road, then Mere Lane and Irby Road across to Pensby Road, Arrowe Park Road and the A552 Woodchurch Road into Birkenhead. Allow 25 to 30 minutes at school and rush hours. Parking on the square is pay and display, inside Wirral Council's central Birkenhead controlled parking zone, paid by card, phone or the JustPark app rather than cash; the current tariffs are on the council's website. By bus, the 471 (Arriva) and 472 (Stagecoach) leave Heswall Bus Station and take about 35 to 40 minutes into central Birkenhead, setting down on Grange Road or Whetstone Lane rather than at the bus station, then about ten minutes on foot.

I am selling a building plot from my garden. What will the tax be?

It turns chiefly on timing and on what has been done to the land. Private residence relief can cover garden and grounds sold separately from the house, normally up to half a hectare, but it is lost entirely if the land is sold after the house has gone, so the order of the two sales matters most. It can also be restricted where the plot has been fenced off for development or work has started, and HMRC can refer the permitted area to the District Valuer. A developer deal often brings an overage or option payment too. Speak to us before you sign.

How do your fees work?

A fixed price, agreed in writing before the work starts. A one-off job, such as a Self Assessment return or accounts for a dormant company, is quoted as a single figure. Ongoing work for a trading company, where a payroll and VAT returns have to be kept running month to month, is quoted as a monthly fee. Either way the figure holds unless the work itself changes.

Services