A hand writing with a pen on paper at a wooden desk, a white mug beside it

Arbor Tax · A tax atelier · Est. 2009

The footnote is the work.¹

Personal and owner-managed tax, done by people who read to the bottom of the page. Fixed annual fee, quoted in January.

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¹Where everyone else stops reading. Where the money usually is.

The desk

Ruled paper, one pen, no software you have to learn.

Practice

Small numbers of people. Large numbers of footnotes.

Around ninety clients. Each one has a named adviser who has read every return they've ever filed with us.

01PersonalSelf-assessment, capital gains, the year you sold the flat. Filed early, so the number isn't a surprise in January.

02Owner-managed businessesSalary, dividends, the car, the pension, the sale one day. One plan that covers the company and the person behind it.

03Trusts and estatesSet up so the next generation can read them. Reviewed every year, not every decade.

04EnquiriesWhen the letter comes, we answer it. Calmly, in full, with the footnotes attached. Most close on the first reply.

02 · The page

One return. Five footnotes. Read the small ones.

Client summary · Tax year to 5 AprilPage 3 of 3

Total income for the year was £148,200, comprising salary, dividends from the company¹ and rental income from the two flats. Capital gains arose on the disposal of the workshop premises in October.²

Pension contributions of £40,000 were made in March, using unused allowance carried forward from the previous three years.³ Gift Aid donations totalled £6,400.⁴

Liability after reliefs: £38,910, payable 31 January. Payments on account for the following year have been reduced on the basis of the workshop sale not recurring.⁵

¹Scroll to read the footnotes. Each one is a decision.

£0

found in the footnotes

03 · The year

Twelve months. Every date already in the diary.

Januarythe month you're in

January

31 JanReturn filed. Balance paid.Ours went in November. You've known the number since then.

February

Early FebFee proposal for the year.One page. One number. Nothing hourly unless HMRC writes.

March

5 Mar → 5 AprYear-end planning.Pension, ISA, gifts, dividends. The last month anything can still be changed.

April

6 AprNew tax year.We request the documents now, not in December.

May

31 MayP60s in.First draft of the return starts the week they arrive.

June

Mid-JuneDraft return to you.With the footnotes. Read them; that's where the choices are.

July

31 JulSecond payment on account.Reduced where the year justifies it. We tell you in June.

August

—Nothing.Deliberately. We're on holiday. So should you be.

September

SeptCompany year-end review.Salary and dividend mix for the year ahead, on one sheet.

October

5 OctRegistration deadline for new income.If something new started this year, it's registered by now.

November

Mid-NovReturn filed.Eleven weeks early. The liability is in your calendar with a reminder.

December

—A letter, not an invoice.What we found this year, and what to watch next year. Two pages.

A single broad oak tree standing in an open field under a blue sky

A tax position should survive weather.

Rules change. Rates move. A good structure is one that still makes sense in five years, whoever is Chancellor. We don't chase schemes; we plant things that grow slowly.

Method

We write the footnotes. Then we send you the page.

Every number in your return has a note under it saying why. You don't have to read them. But they're there, and in an enquiry they're the whole defence.

Read everything.Bank statements, contracts, the old returns another firm did. Especially those.

Write the decision down.Each relief claimed, each one not claimed, and the reason. In plain English, dated.

File early.November, not January. The number stops being a threat and becomes a diary entry.

Answer the phone.Questions aren't billed. If you have to wonder whether to ask, the fee structure is wrong.

Personal · annual

From £1,800

One fixed fee for the year, quoted in February. Return, planning meeting in March, and every question in between.

Owner-managed · annual

From £4,200

Company and personal together. Year-end review, remuneration plan, both returns, the December letter.

HMRC enquiries

£220 /hr

The only hourly work we do. Capped in writing before we start. Most close on the first letter.

If we find something in a footnote that saves more than our fee, we'll tell you which footnote. That's the whole marketing budget.

Founder · Chartered tax adviserRuth Ashby

Fifteen years in a large firm's footnotes before starting Arbor with the theory that ninety clients read properly beat nine hundred read quickly.

Partner · Owner-managed businessesDaniel Okafor

Company tax, remuneration, exits. Has sat on the other side of the table at HMRC. Knows which letters mean what.

Begin

Request a fee proposal.

Tell us roughly what your year looks like. We send one page back with one number on it, within a week. No meeting required to get it.