Sole traders and partnerships may need to pay a second installment of income tax for the year ended 5 April 2015 by 31 July 2015, which is the end of this month. You should have received a payslip and envelope through the post by now.

Sole traders and partnerships are collectively known as unincorporated businesses. A few partnerships are set up as Limited Liability Partnerships. These are treated in the same way as other partnerships for income tax purposes, but they need to file their accounts at Companies House. There is also the very rare Limited Partnership, which is also treated like a partnership for income tax, but it does not have to file its accounts since it has at least one partner with unlimited liability.

David Porthouse & Co are accountants in Carlisle serving clients in Cumbria and North West England. They have a substantial interest in new technology and are developing an optical number recognition/datepoint system for scanning bank statements with the intention of reducing the costs of accounts preparation. They also have a spreadsheet system which can be e-mailed back and forth between the accountant and the client. They have now developed an online quotation system for transparent pricing.