If you have recently started working for a law firm or are employed in the legal sector, there are many reasons why you should seek the help of an accountancy practice.
Legal professionals working either as an individual with their practice, through a normal partnership arrangement or in limited liability partnership with existing law firms need help understanding the Solicitors Regulation Authority rules and regulations.
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That is, on top of the normal ins and outs of accounting, like tax planning and tax advice, business finances, annual accounts, regulatory investigations,
At TaxBite, we understand the different pressures weighing on individuals in the law society.
Suppose, like many legal professionals, you are billed in small increments, such as a tenth of an hour or similar. In that case, we can help you manage the complications of your accounts, working from over a decade’s worth of experience.
When operating in a self-employed capacity, you have the yearly self-assessment tax returns to think about.
This deals with administrative and chamber support services costs and the expenses associated with hiring clerks. You need to think of a lot on top of the actual work you do.
You may feel more than capable of handling this all yourself, but accountancy, especially within the legal sector, can be a complicated matter.
You could spend a lot of time and energy trying to make heads or tails of it all. When you should look to a company that offers accountancy services, like TaxBite.
In some cases law firms have multiple employees which all have various tax codes constantly needing to keep these records upto date can very time consuming.
If you need help with keeping your tax codes up to date then get in touch with our team.
We can also help assist with Tax code 1257L.
The legal sector and the roles people hold within it for law firms and other organisations are among the most demanding. Along with industries like medicine, the law involves many positions where you must often work for long hours.
With this in mind, many choose to offer their legal services on a locum or contract basis instead of being taken on full-time by firms. This offers them more flexibility and means that while they are still on hourly pay, they can choose how many hours they work.
This allows them to manage their finances and time better to achieve a better work-life balance, especially when relying on the help of one of the many accountancy firms that have experience working in the legal profession.
As has already been touched upon, the legal sector is home to many well-paid jobs and positions.
If you have worked within the legal profession for several years now and have seniority over others, this can mean that you could demand higher hourly pay than those less experienced. Working as a locum solicitor could make all the difference to your life.
To ensure that you qualify for and benefit from as many of the financial benefits as you can in your position, make sure you choose legal sector accountants that offer the following accountancy services:
Year-end accounts
Corporate tax advice and calculations
Expenses
Payroll
Management accountants
IR35
Another compelling reason for choosing to work in a locum capacity rather than being hired officially on the payroll by legal firms is that locum lawyers cost less to hire and use their services than full-time and even part-time employees.
When you run your own small business, it is easier to work on your development rather than your employees footing the bill.
We have already highlighted that more flexibility is a huge benefit to working as a locum, as you can choose the hours you work and when. In addition to that versatility, you can also choose the type of work, where it is found, or the sectors it is based on.
If you prefer to offer legal services in a specific area, then working as a locum can make this easier for you to do. The alternative would be to work for legal firms that take on the work that interests them as firms.
As the Solicitors Regulation Authority regulates you, there are specific needs you need to meet regarding accounting.
Along with these rules, there are several reporting and legal requirements related to holding, maintaining and controlling client expenses paid to your legal practice.
Reporting account rules are varied and complex and depend on the kind of legal entity you are operating. In recent years, these obligations related to reporting have been changed, and there is greater flexibility than there ever was in the past.
However, they are still tricky to navigate, and any deliberate or accidental breaches of the SRA Accounts rules.
Fortunately, at Tax Bite, we have expertise and experience in accountancy and the law. We fully understand the SRA Accounts Rules by the SRA and the application they have for different kinds of legal practices.
We have experience setting up good strategies and systems to ensure that accounts are filed and submitted accurately and on time.
Our team are sticklers for the finer details and works hard to ensure compliance is met. As we have the experience and knowledge, we are in the best position to offer guidance on following the rules on keeping accounts and knowing how to identify and avoid the most common breaches.
We have looked at many of the main reasons and benefits of hiring accountants for your law firm or solicitor business.
With so many out there, you may find it hard to choose one over another.
To help make things a little easier, in this section, we will highlight why you should consider Tax Bite as the best choice for accountants with legal firm services.
Speak To A Chartered AccountantOne of the key issues we’ve heard of in the past with other accountants is that businesses are not assigned a specific accountant to their accounts. Rather, the pool of accountants for that firm is responsible for dealing with any requests, queries or problems.
This may not sound particularly bad until we look at this kind of set-up under closer scrutiny. Say, for instance, you have hired one of these accounting firms, and out with your normal services and support, something comes up, and you need to contact an accountant. You need to phone or contact them and then wait for a response.
Rather than hearing directly from an accountant that knew your specific account inside out, you would receive help from just one of the many accountants working there.
This means you would need to wait until they had brought themselves up to speed with the unique complexities of your finances. Imagine waiting for this to happen each time you had a question or query. We’re sure you can appreciate how frustrating it could get.
At Tax Bite, we do things differently.
At Tax Bite, we always assign each client to a dedicated accountant. That means, from the time you hire us for our accounting services and support, you will only deal with one individual accountant.
As well as improving your working relationship with your accountant and building up trust in them, it simplifies and quickens the process of contacting us.
You won’t need to wait long to hear back from the accountant in question because they are already familiar with you as a solicitor and business owner; they know your history and the type of business you run and likely will have a good idea of how well or not your business is doing at that moment.
For more information about our fully qualified accountants, why not contact Tax Bite today? You can do so either by giving us a call, sending us an email or using the contact form on the contact us page.
As a solicitor, potentially running your own business or with a limited liability partnership or in whatever capacity you are practising law, there will always be times when you need advice and support. It does not always come at the most opportune time, particularly convenient or during sociable hours.
That’s why when you are looking for the right accounting team, you need to choose one that can assign you an individual that can respond to your questions and queries when you need help and not just when it’s convenient to the company.
At Tax Bite, we understand how crucial it is to have the support and expertise of an accountant when you need it. Regardless of how urgent it is and the type of problem or query you have, you can have access to the advice and help you need when you need it most.
We can also perform a tax audit to check if you are overpaying on tax. So many companies over pay every year on tax. Make sure to check out our article on how to pay less tax.
For more information about our business advice and guidance for your legal practice, contact Tax Bite today. You can drop us an email, give us a call or use the online form on the Contact Us page.
Dedicated AccountantsAnother issue we have encountered that many solicitors have when trying to find a suitable accountant is that so many are less than honest with their prices. Some accounting companies will advertise their rates and make them sound reasonable and fair.
When it comes to working with them, though, solicitors often find themselves stung by additional fees that are added after the fact to the invoice.
At Tax Bite, we do not use deceptive tactics to extract as much money from our clients as possible. Rather, if we quote you a specific price for our services, that will be the price you can expect to pay when we invoice you after you have signed a contract with us.
Our enviable reputation within the legal sector has been built upon previous clients’ trust in us. That trust is more important to us than earning money from deceptive means.
“I recently started offering my legal services through solicitors firm as a locum. Although experienced in the profession, I realised quickly in my new working arrangement that I needed a lot of advice as I was essentially running my own business. Based on case studies and testimonials I read and speaking to one of the team, I decided that Tax Bite would be a good fit for me. I felt their accounts specialists understood that only comes from time spent in the legal profession. Compliance is very important in our heavily regulated sector, so I felt confident that the team at Tax Bite, as well as the accountant assigned to work with me directly, knew necessary to help me avoid any tricky or expensive mistakes.”
“Before discovering my new accounting partners at Tax Bite, I looked at and spoke to several companies. Although there was nothing exactly wrong with any of these other businesses, it was the team at Tax Bite that I felt instilled my confidence in them. They had all the knowledge and expertise, but they also had a real passion for helping their clients. That, for me, was just as vital. I am driven by my passion for the legal sector and helping people. So, it makes sense that I found an accountancy practice that wanted to help me provide the best legal services possible.”
“I have been using the team at TaxBite for 3 years now and they provide my law firm with amazing business growth strategies and help with our tax and vat bill.”
“As a legal professional, my accounts can be tricky to navigate. I spent several weeks trying to find a team that could give me the help and advice I needed because, at that point, if my accounting were left unchanged, I would have been in serious trouble. Fortunately, the Tax Bite team gave me the help I needed and offered my clients the best range of services possible. I am also operating within the law.”
Locum lawyers, also called locum solicitors, are legal professionals who work for short periods each time. Often this means working as little as a few hours to help a legal firm or for as long as several years.
Generally, they fulfil these positions to cover for existing members of staff who are absent.
There are reasons why lawyers forgo being employed or self-employed through traditional arrangements and opt for locum roles. We have outlined the most important benefits to show why it may be something that suits your needs.
Legal accountants maintain the financial information of solicitors and law firms. They prepare all financial records and statements, including profit and loss statements, income statements, tax returns and balance sheets.
They also take care of processing all the accounts payable and receivable and are responsible for reconciling general ledgers.
To help with the future development of a law firm or the business offerings of a solo lawyer, they can also analyse and interpret the information they collect.
The most common tasks that legal accountants engage in include:
Whatever your business structure is, whether you are operating a law firm with other partners or are working as a sole trader with your practice or even a limited company, you need to realise that you can’t and shouldn’t expect to do everything on your own.
As an expert in the law, you must focus on that and leave the accounting to the experts in businesses like Tax Bite.
We have a team of fully qualified and experienced accountants who can’t wait to help clients like you by providing support for everything from tax and tax law, costs and accounting regarding the legal market to specialist advice and support with management accounts.
We will ensure your practices meet the compliance guidelines in England and Wales and help ensure that you offer the best to your clients and make the most money.
To find out more about our accounting specialists, contact Tax Bite today.
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