Four before-and-afters.

Challenge

Year 4 of self-employment, earning around £62k. Self Assessment was eating two weekends in January and she'd been hit with two consecutive late-filing penalties.

What we did

• Migrated her bank feeds to Xero
• Set up Dext for receipt capture
• Moved her to MTD ITSA early (April 2026)
• Quarterly 10-min portal check-ins

Outcome

Spent 11 minutes total on her last quarter. Zero late filings since onboarding. £2,400/yr saved by structuring some pension contributions before year-end.

Challenge

Two-director Ltd, £180k turnover, paying a chain accountant £200/mo. Felt billed for every phone call. Wanted clearer dividend strategy.

What we did

• Restructured salary/dividend split for both directors
• Set up R&D credit eligibility tracking
• Annual + monthly cashflow forecast
• Switched to single £900/yr fee + £6/mo per employee for payroll

Outcome

Saved £4,800/yr on accountant fees alone. Filed first R&D claim for £18k. No 'just for asking' charges since switching.

Challenge

Doing his own Self Assessment from Uber's annual statement. Missing mileage records. HMRC opened an enquiry on his 2023/24 return.

What we did

• Set up Driversnote mileage capture
• Negotiated enquiry resolution with HMRC
• Switched to MTD ITSA quarterly cadence
• Built repeatable mileage method for vehicle write-down

Outcome

Enquiry closed with no penalty. Annual mileage write-down went from £1,800 (estimated) to £4,950 (logged). All future returns set up to comply with MTD.

Challenge

Couple with 6 buy-to-let properties, £78k combined rental income, plus PAYE jobs. Couldn't tell which property was making money. Confused about mortgage interest restriction.

What we did

• Property-level P&L on Xero with class tracking
• Mortgage interest relief modelled in full
• Joint return optimised for income shifting
• Set up quarterly MTD ITSA for both

Outcome

Identified two properties losing money — sold them. Reduced effective tax rate by 8%. They now know which £100 of rent is profit and which is just admin.