A Shaw & Co. Ltd. Chartered Accountant

A Shaw & Co. Ltd
Chartered Accountants
21 Bushy Park Road
Teddington
Middlesex
TW11 9DQ

The following links should give you pretty much everything you need to know when thinking about starting and running your own business.

Business link is a government website offering help and advice on all things related to business including a handy start up guide.

Accountants don't have to be regulated. They don't even have to be qualified. The best ones are though, and The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales is the largest and most respected regulator of accountants in the UK. Ernst & Young, PWC, Deloittes, KPMG and A Shaw & Co. are all member firms.

Companies House looks after all UK limited companies and limited liability partnerships. It's where your Annual Accounts and Annual Returns need to be filed each year.

HMRC. Well you probably know about them already! It's the taxman! They have some fairly comprehensive guides to the diffferent forms of tax including VAT, PAYE, Corporation tax, etc. They even have their in-house manuals on line which is what their inspectors use. Just remember these manuals are not the actual law, just their take on it and they're not impartial!

This is part of the HMRC website but a key one at the start - you must remember to tell HMRC when you start up on your own. Limited companies will be dealt with automatically when you incorporate but self=employed sole traders need to actively tell HMRC. Find out how here.

Xero claims to be the world's easiest accounting system. That's a bold claim and I can't say I've seen all of them. I have seen a lot though and I think they could be right. It's a superb system and will save you time, money and frustration. How did Sage get to be so popular? Probably because the entry level product is often pushed by banks for free to get you to open an account with them. Big mistake!

This is a userful HMRC page to bookmark. All the various rates of tax and allowances are shown here.

If you're going to keep client details on your computer you need to register with the Information Commissioner's Office under the Data Protection Act.