Benson Accountants

By Margaret Brecknell

Paul Benson of Benson Accountants has a deceptively simple, but engaging, way of describing his business. “We’re good people, doing a good job for good clients”, he says.

Paul was born in Cumbria and brought up on the family farm, before studying engineering at Durham University. After graduating in 2004, he decided to train as an accountant and joined a local practice, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 2008. In 2014, he set up his own accountancy practice in the Cumbrian town of Wigton and has since focused on building a team who can bring experience and expertise to a wide range of businesses and private clients.

The team at Benson Accountants has been recently strengthened by the arrival of experienced Senior Tax Consultant, Sue Blair, who joined the practice on 1st June 2022. Like Paul, Sue’s roots are firmly based in the local area. After obtaining a degree in accountancy, she started her working life at a large firm in Liverpool but moved back to Cumbria in the early 2000s. Sue specialises in inheritance tax planning and the use of trusts for families wishing to provide asset protection for the next generation.

She has known Paul professionally for years and welcomes the opportunity to join forces with him, believing that they share the same

client-driven approach to business. “I love the way in which Paul talks about building a rapport with clients and providing an excellent service”, Sue explains.

The team also includes Elizabeth Bainbridge, who joined the practice in 2015 and, like Sue, is a Senior Tax Consultant with over 20 years’ experience in tax planning,

Clare Sowerby previously had her own practice, before joining forces with Benson Accountants earlier this year. She has a strong connection with the local agricultural community and specialises in providing accountancy, tax and business advice to the farming industry. Sarah Bell, who joined the practice in late 2020 as a business and tax adviser, also specialises in advising farming and rural businesses.

In total, the Benson Accountants team has now grown to over twenty members, all of whom share the same passion for providing an exceptional service. Paul Benson is proud of the practice’s strong connection with the local agricultural community, but he and his colleagues work with businesses in many sectors and the firm’s client base stretches across the whole country. “The business has grown through word of mouth”, explains Paul, before adding that he believes there is still plenty of potential for further expansion.

Clients range from individuals seeking tax advice through to very large companies with multi-millionpound turnovers. Paul stresses that no client is too big or too small, describing the perfect client as “one where we can establish a rapport and truly listen to one another”.

For anyone about to start on their business journey, the dedicated StartUp Support Team can assist them in making the best use of the tax reliefs available to new companies and setting realistic budgets and forecasts. The team is on hand to assist with all the official paperwork, ensuring that the new business is set up correctly with HM Revenue & Customs and, where appropriate, Companies House.

Once the new business is up and running, Benson Accountants’ bookkeeping and payroll teams are on hand to look after the company’s day-to-day accounting needs, thus allowing owners to focus on what they are trying to achieve rather than becoming bogged down in official paperwork.

In these days of constantly changing legislation and costly software updates, it makes a lot of sense for businesses to use a payroll outsourcing service. Benson Accountants pride themselves on providing a professional but personal service to all their payroll clients, large or small. Their experienced team offers a wide range of payroll services, tailored to meet the needs of each individual business.

Benson Accountants work closely with a BACs partner and so are able to handle the payment of monthly salaries direct from the company’s bank account to its employees. They can also deal with the payment of PAYE and National Insurance liabilities direct to HM Revenue & Customs.

The complexity of employing someone is ever increasing, particularly with the recent introduction of the workplace pension scheme. The payroll team at Benson Accountants will ensure that clients are complying with the Pension Regulator’s requirements, as well as having direct access to the top workplace pension providers to ensure that the contributions of both employers and employees are calculated and paid correctly.

Another way in which business owners can free up valuable time is by outsourcing their VAT compliance work. Benson Accountants have a dedicated team who deal with the preparation of monthly or quarterly VAT returns for businesses. The VAT team is also on hand to offer companies invaluable advice on matters like the VAT treatment of future income streams, a factor which can significantly change future cash flows and returns.

When it comes to the preparation of annual accounts, the Benson Accountants team has years of experience at its disposal. The accountancy practice prepares annual accounts for a wide range of business clients including sole traders, partnerships and limited companies. When advising clients, Paul Benson and his team of experts are on hand to focus not just on the figures themselves, but also to consider the insight they provide into how a business is performing and the successes or challenges it may face in the future.

Cloud-based accounting software (ie accounting software accessed through the internet) has become increasingly popular with business clients in recent years. It enables up-to-date information to be shared between the business and its tax and business advisers, thus allowing tax and business planning to take place in real time at any point through the financial year.

At Benson Accountants, the cloud accounting team has extensive experience of cloud accounting packages including staff members who are certified users of Xero and QuickBooks. Different packages suit 99www.lancmag.com

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different businesses. When it comes to choice, the team is on hand to offer invaluable advice. As an alternative, desktop-based software solutions are also available.

For business clients who do decide to move to cloud accounting, Benson Accountants are able to provide software training packages for both owners and employees.

When it comes to effective tax planning, the firm’s tax experts have detailed knowledge of specific tax rules and regulations and can provide businesses with invaluable guidance in many key areas. They aim to maximise the tax savings available to a business by reviewing its activities and claiming valuable reliefs.

With corporation tax set to increase for the first time in decades, this is particularly important at present. There are many valuable reliefs available to companies including annual investment and capital allowance claims, research and development relief and the seed enterprise investment scheme. The corporation tax experts at Benson Accountants keep updated with all the latest developments in tax law and are able to assess their impact on businesses.

Benson Accountants also offer a full range of private client services, catering for everyone from the individual who needs to report the income from a single rental property to high net worth individuals with complex personal tax affairs.

As well completing personal tax returns and taking the worry out of HM Revenue & Customs tax compliance, members of the specialist team at Paul Benson can advise on tax reliefs from simple expense deductions to more complex schemes such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme. They can also look to minimise a client’s personal tax liability by undertaking a review of their dividend and pension positions prior to the tax year end.

Paul Benson and his team recognise the importance of succession planning, both in an individual’s business and personal life. Planning in advance of strategic business events such as the admission or retirement of directors or shareholders can save both business and personal tax.

US statesman, Benjamin Franklin, once wrote that “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”, so planning to minimise the amount of tax which will be paid by beneficiaries after your death is an issue with which many people are faced at some point in their lives.

The dedicated team of tax advisers at Benson Accountants specialise in offering advice on how to protect wealth for future generations through inheritance tax and capital gains tax planning. If this involves setting up a trust, the firm’s trust and estate practitioners are on hand to guide clients through the process and advise on the tax consequences.

The team can assist with any ongoing compliance requirements including the preparation of trust accounts, tax returns and registration with the Trust Registration Service. They are also there to guide clients through the difficult time of bereavement, when they can help with the process of making a personal application for probate and assist with the completion of inheritance tax returns.

Sometimes, as part of succession planning, business or personal assets are passed from one generation to another during an individual’s lifetime. As the tax implications of selling or gifting assets can be complex and costly if it results in an unexpected tax charge, it is well worth seeking specialist advice. The highly experienced team at Benson Accountants can advise on the best way of minimising the tax payable when the disposal is made through claiming all available reliefs. They are also able to assist with any reporting requirements on the sale of property, particularly important now as the reporting deadline for residential property is now just 60 days after completion.

Paul Benson and his team are passionate about helping their clients to grow, protect and pass on their businesses and personal assets through highly effective tax planning. With their focus on providing excellent customer service and the recent additions that have been made to the team, Paul and his colleagues at Benson Accountants seem well set to fulfil that objective for years to come.

M The Mill, Station Road,

Wigton CA7 9BA

N 01697 508925

E info@paul-benson.co.uk

D www.paul-benson.co.uk