Let’s say you are a company employing two people, each receiving a substantial salary. It may occur to you that if you split yourself up into two companies, each employing one person, then you can claim two lots of Employment Allowance. Why stop there?  Why not have every employee with his or her own company?

Well, if you set up two or more companies, that’s two or more lots of accountancy fees. Sooner or later, the Revenue will twig on what’s happening, amend the law in the annual Finance Act, and this wonderful scheme will end. You will then be left with a great empire of companies and lots of accountancy fees. Unravelling your empire can be done, but for an additional fee …

Use some common sense.

David Porthouse & Co is a firm of Carlisle accountants serving clients in Cumbria and North West England. We have a substantial interest in introducing new technology and we are developing an optical number recognition/datepoint system for scanning bank statements with the intention of reducing the cost of accounts production. We also have a spreadsheet system which can be sent back and forth by e-mail.