The financial world is a very difficult one to navigate. There are always a lot of new terms being coined, a lot of different things to think about at once and plenty of accounts to be managing. Plenty of people experience financial problems at some point in their lives- in fact, most of us do. There are a lot of things that can go wrong; you could lose your job and wage, an unexpected medical bill could pop up or a number of loan repayments could be setting you back. A lot of people try and tackle these kinds of problems themselves, but while that’s admirable I don’t believe that it’s always the best. Life can be tricky enough as it is and that’s why asking for a little bit of growth for your business with an offshore foundation can always be handy.Â
That’s why I believe that with taxes, you should definitely consider looking for people who can point you in the right direction and give you a helping hand in times of need. Everyone has heard of taxes but, for one reason or another, you might not entirely know how they work or how you should go about paying them. Don’t worry, however; you definitely aren’t the only one out there who feels like this. That’s why I’m here today- I’m going to go through a number of key things you should know about taxes and tell you what you should be looking for in people who claim they can help you manage them. Sit back and relax while you go through my extended guide to tax accountants and business advisors.
There are a number of tax accountants who you can check out and I’ll touch more on that later. If you want to look at an example company, Hillyer Riches Tax accountants could be a good option for you.
What are taxes?
Taxes can be confusing at points but at their heart, the idea is pretty simple. To break it down to the basics, taxes are more or less a sum of money that you have to pay (they are involuntary and you have no choice in the matter) to some sort of corporation- in the vast majority of cases, it’s the government that runs the country or state you live in. Different levels of governments can charge for different taxes and I’ll touch more on this later. Everyone has to pay taxes and the amount you pay tends to be based on your level of income. Calculations are made by the government to work out how much you owe and this then gives you two different values; the amount of money you earn pre-tax and the amount you’ll have post-tax. As taxes are mandatory, it’s always wise to base your financial decisions around your post-tax numbers. This will stop you from spending any money you don’t have.
Taxes are collected by governments in order to fund programs that they run. In some countries, for example, this could be for healthcare, Taxes collected in the United Kingdom are put towards funding their National Health System and this has proven to be successful. They can be used to contribute to education programs, sports activities for young people and even coming up with free school meals for children of a certain age. While taxes do seem like a pain, they are usually being put towards a good cause. In the majority of cases, they could end up saving you a lot of money as well- you’d rather spend a bit on taxes than have to continually pay for some of the things I’ve mentioned for even higher prices, for example.
Everyone pays taxes, so you shouldn’t feel as though you’re being hard done by. Of course, there tends to be a lot of debate over people with higher incomes and the amounts that they have to pay but any complaints are often debunked by government officials and financial experts who can explain why certain groups of people have to pay certain amounts. Taxes do bring a lot of controversies, too- a lot of celebrities try to get out of paying all the taxes they owe by storing their money in offshore accounts. In some cases, this can allow them to save a bit of their money and they won’t have to provide the government with as much. If they aren’t careful they can actually break the law and this gets treated pretty harshly, so don’t get any ideas!
There are three general types of tax and each of them have their own benefits in certain situations. One of these are proportional taxes. This is where the level of income you have doesn’t have an impact whatsoever- everyone has to pay the same level of tax no matter how much money they make in a calendar year. This means the tax rate is fixed; so, for example, no matter what you earn you still have to pay 10% of it towards the government. These kinds of taxes don’t tend to be too high as this would be unfair on people who are on much lower salaries than people at the top of the money chain.
Progressive taxes are another type and these are the forms of tax that impose higher levels of taxation on those with higher incomes. These will be used to supply different kinds of government funding and the rates can vary greatly. For example, someone who earns a certain income may have to pay 10% of it towards taxes. On the other hand, someone who falls into a different wage category might have to pay 15% of their wages towards the government. This tends to be so that people are paying a fair amount based on what they earn and it ensures the government is able to continue making money.
Regressive taxes flip this on its head; these are where people with lower incomes pay a higher tax percentage. This is usually so that people are all actually paying the same amount of money- while these people are paying a higher percentage of their wages towards the government, it’ll work out as the same amount of money that’s paid by people with higher wages and lower tax percentages.
Why would you need advice on your taxes?
There are a number of reasons to why you might need some help with your taxes and getting them sorted out. For starters, taxes can be a hit confusing for people. There are a lot of different sums that need to be performed to work out how much you owe the government and in a lot of cases, you have to work this out yourself. This can be tricky and it could also lead to some nasty legal processes if you get it wrong- even if you accidentally pay too little when you owe taxes, the government may not believe you and you could be in some big trouble. If you put these sums in the hands of experts, you won’t have to worry about that. Everything will be taken care of, everything you pay will be correct and you can then move on to working out what to do with your leftover money.
Hiring someone else to handle your taxes will also help you to free up time for other activities. Life can be busy with a lot of things- when you’re not working to earn a living, you’ll be wanting to spend time with your family and friends and make new memories. If you’re constantly trying to get your taxes sorted and are always worrying about the next tax period, you won’t be able to take full advantage of your free time. It’s these people’s jobs to take care of your taxes to whatever degree you want them to, so you could completely free up your schedule by enlisting their help. Hand over the necessary details and you’ll be well on the way to using that free time the way you want to.
It’ll also help you to de-stress, as well. Taxes, as I’ve already mentioned, can be really confusing and will constantly worry you- particularly if you’re going through a difficult time financially in general. If you want to take your mind off things, hiring someone to do all the work for you could be a great idea. It’ll mean you can sit back and relax with the knowledge that someone else is taking care of everything for you- the professionals are at work and you won’t have to do a thing. You can focus on doing fun things in your spare time and clearing your mind of any worry. This might even allow you to come up with better ideas on how to improve your finances, as well!
Who can help you with taxes?
There are a number of different people who could help you with taxes. One place you could go, naturally, is a bank. Banks are the absolute optimization of financial experts- everyone that works there has literally trained to manage people’s finances. They’ll be absolute experts on taxes, they know all the ins and outs and they’ll know exactly how to help you manage yours. It’s not as though you should have to travel too far to find yourself a bank, either- most people live relatively near at least one branch. All you’d have to do is pay them a visit or book an appointment and find out everything you need to know about how they handle these kinds of things. This will mean you can make a well-informed decision about whether they are the right people to visit for taking care of your taxes.
There are also a lot of individual companies out there who enlist the help of financial experts so that they can help manage your taxes as well. These companies are different from banks in that they are independent and aren’t linked to a government or something of the sort- however, they can be just as good if you know where to look. There are a lot of different companies out there and some are a lot better than others; some just simply aren’t as reliable or don’t possess the required knowledge to take care of your taxes. If you do all the necessary research, however, you could end up finding yourself a company that are at the top of their game when it comes to helping people like you. Have a look around and you could find the people who suit your needs.
What should you look for in the people you hire to help you?
There are a variety of things you should be looking for when you hire someone to help you out with managing your taxes. For starters, they should be pleasant to work with. As I’ve already mentioned, taxes can be really confusing and give you a bit of grief and you don’t want to add to that by hiring a company that don’t provide good customer service. While looking for people who know how to manage your finances properly is the most important thing, making sure they’re nice people is vital as well. To make sure you are able to do this, you should go online and look at some reviews. This will allow you to get a good idea of what other people think about the customer service of certain companies- people aren’t exactly going to lie about this and these reviews should give you a good idea of who’s nice to work with. If you know any friends or family who get help with their taxes you could also ask them as their opinion can usually be trusted.
You should also look to see if any of the companies you’re thinking about choosing are certified by any recognizable organizations. This is particularly helpful if you’re going with standalone companies- it’ll give you a good idea if they’re reliable or not and could show they are trusted by big companies are celebrity names. You can’t be too careful when it comes to your taxes and making sure you choose a well-renowned company is usually important.