J Leigh Accountant

J Leigh Accountant Business owner. Accountant. Strategist. Helping small business owners understand their numbers, plan properly, and stop flying blind. Less jargon. More clarity.

Accounts, tax & business growth, explained like a human. I've been in the accounting world for more years than I care to count—starting with the fast-paced finance office of a large corporation to managing local practice offices. Now, as the owner of my own firm, I've taken all those years of experience, knowledge, and invaluable client feedback to build something with local business owners in min

d. Accounting doesn’t have to be overwhelming—I’m here to simplify the numbers, keep you compliant, and help your business thrive. Whether it’s bookkeeping, tax, payroll, or strategic advice, I make sure you have the support you need.

08/09/2026

CIS rules are simple… until they aren't.

And some of the mistakes I see aren't small ones.
If you're a contractor paying subcontractors, you need to know what CIS actually applies to, not just deduct 20% from whatever number happens to be on the invoice
Materials.
Plant hire.
Scaffolding.
Travel.

Verification.
They don't all work the way people assume.
One that catches people out 👇

You own the scaffolding and your subcontractor uses it?

You can't just create a scaffolding hire cost and knock that off their payment before calculating CIS.

The subcontractor hasn't actually incurred that cost.

But if they genuinely hire plant/scaffolding from a third party for your job, that's a different situation and the actual hire cost may be excluded when calculating the CIS deduction.

CIS is one of those areas where “we've always done it this way” can get expensive.

Save this one if you pay subcontractors, and send it to someone in construction who needs it.

Follow for straight-talking tax and accounting advice without the jargon.

07/09/2026

CIS contractors , your new period has started.

Your CIS return for the period just ended needs to be with HMRC by the 19th.

And one thing I really don't recommend?
Submitting a NIL return just to beat the deadline, knowing you've actually paid subcontractors and planning to amend it later.

You're not making the liability disappear, you're delaying reporting it, and late payment can mean interest on what should have been paid.

Get the figures right.
Submit the return.
Pay what you owe.

And if you're sitting there thinking…
“Actually, I'm not completely sure what I should be deducting CIS from…”

That's my next Reel.

We'll cover some of the CIS rules that regularly trip contractors up, including materials, plant hire, scaffolding and travel.

Follow if you work in construction, this one could save you an expensive mistake.

04/09/2026

Unpopular opinion… sometimes paying tax is a GOOD thing. 👀

When I’m tax planning with a business owner, I’m not looking at one tax bill in isolation.

Corporation Tax.
PAYE.
Self Assessment.

Because ultimately, you’re the business owner. It’s all your money.

So good tax planning isn't about saving £1 of Corporation Tax if all we've actually done is create £1 of tax somewhere else.

I don't want to move your tax. I want to save it.
But and this bit doesn't always make me popular 😂
the lowest possible tax bill isn't always the best outcome either.

Want a mortgage?
Your lender may want to see the income you've actually declared on your SA302/tax calculations.

Want investment or finance?
They're going to care about the financial strength and performance of the business.

Want to grow?
Sometimes deliberately suppressing profits just to save tax can work against the bigger thing you're trying to achieve.

Tax planning should start with: “What are we trying to do?”

Then we work backwards and structure things properly.
Because the goal isn't simply to pay less tax.

It's to build a stronger financial position and not pay any more tax than you need to along the way.

Speak to your accountant before you make the decision. Not afterwards.

Tax and lending decisions depend on individual circumstances and lender criteria.

03/09/2026

This is why you should actually TALK to your accountant 👇

Not just once a year when your accounts are due.

I incorporated my own business at a profit level where, generally, I’d probably tell you to stay as a sole trader.

Why?

Because I wanted a new car.

So I did exactly what I do with my clients I ran the numbers first.

A brand-new electric car can be incredibly tax-efficient through a limited company.

A qualifying new EV can currently attract 100% first-year capital allowances, meaning the company can potentially deduct the full cost from its taxable profits in the year of purchase.

And the Benefit in Kind on EVs remains relatively low.

For example, on a £40,000 EV in 2026/27:

🚗 Taxable BIK: £1,600
💷 Basic-rate taxpayer: £320 personal tax for the year

Compare that with needing to get £40,000 of post-tax money into your own pocket to buy the car personally.

But here's the important bit…

This isn't me telling everyone to incorporate and buy an electric car.

Your turnover, profits, other income, how much money you need personally, how you use the vehicle and what you're actually trying to achieve all matter.

That's why tax planning isn't a generic checklist.

Talk to your accountant. Regularly.

Tell us what you're planning to buy.
Tell us what you want to take home.
Tell us what you're thinking about doing next.

Because when we know what's coming, we can run the maths *before you spend the money* and work out what actually makes sense for you.

Sometimes the best tax planning starts with a conversation.

*Figures shown are illustrative and based on the assumptions in this example. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances

27/08/2026

Should I go limited?

Probably one of the questions I get asked most.
And the answer isn't automatically YES just because your business is making a decent profit.

I ran a simple comparison at £50,000 profit using 2026/27 rates.

As a sole trader, you're looking at roughly:

£9,732 in Income Tax + Class 4 NI.

Run that same £50k through a limited company, pay a £12,570 director's salary and extract the remaining available profit as dividends, and the combined Corporation Tax, Employer's NI and dividend tax comes to roughly: £11,138.

Yep. More.

Does that mean you shouldn't incorporate? Absolutely not.

There are plenty of reasons a limited company might be the right structure — liability, credibility, retaining profits, bringing in shareholders, future plans and how much money you actually need to take personally.

And as profits increase, the planning opportunities get much more interesting.

But please don't incorporate simply because somebody told you:

“Ltd companies pay less tax.”

Sometimes they don't.

Know your numbers. Run the calculation. Then choose the structure.

Figures are illustrative and based on specific assumptions; individual circumstances will differ.

Follow for straight-talking tax and business advice without the accountancy jargon.

24/08/2026

Why do I love what I do?

And no… it’s definitely not the hours spent on hold to HMRC 😂

It’s the people behind the businesses.

The ones taking the risks.
Employing people.
Trying something new.
Having brilliant months.
Having bloody awful months.
And getting up and doing it all again anyway.

I get to see the numbers, but I also get to understand what those numbers actually mean to the person sitting opposite me.

Sometimes that means finding a tax saving.

Sometimes it’s spotting a problem before it becomes a big one.

Sometimes it’s helping someone work out what they can afford to do next.

And sometimes it’s simply being able to say:

You’re doing better than you think. ❤️

That’s the bit of accountancy I love.

And somewhere along the way, 1,000 of you decided to follow along too.

For the tax tips, business chat, HMRC rants and probably a little bit of chaos 😂

Thank you. Genuinely. 🥹❤️

Jamie-Leigh x

21/08/2026

This is what I mean when I talk about tax planning 👇

Every month, I send management accounts to around 70% of the clients in our practice.

We're looking at the P&L, analysing expenses, checking margins, reviewing payroll structure and understanding where the profit is actually heading.

Because sometimes high profits are exactly what you want.

Sometimes you'd rather reinvest into the business, purchase assets, make employer pension contributions, change your salary/dividend mix or make other decisions before the year end.

Then there's the other part people forget…

💷 Cash flow.
If we know what the tax bill is likely to be, can you actually afford to pay it when it's due? Do we need to start putting money aside now?

There isn't one correct answer.

But you can't make any of those decisions if you don't know your numbers until your year-end accounts are prepared.

That's the difference between calculating tax and planning for tax.

Management accounts give us the information — then we decide what to do with it.

📌 Save this if you're a limited company owner.
👋 Follow for practical tax planning and business advice from an accountant who does this every day.

16/08/2026

Last time we talked about the HMRC red flags 🚩

Today, let's talk about the things business owners CAN do… but so many aren't.

Because I genuinely LOVE this stuff

💷 PAYROLL
Is everyone working in your business using their tax-free allowances properly?
Your partner? Your children?
If they genuinely work in the business, paying them properly through payroll could be completely legitimate — and tax deductible.

🚗 YOUR CAR
Everyone says “don't put the car through the limited company because of the benefit in kind.”
But have you actually done the maths?
Because sometimes paying the BIK can work out better than taking taxed income out of your company to pay for the car personally.

Don't guess. Run the numbers.

💰 YOUR DIRECTOR'S LOAN
Put your own money into your limited company?
If the company owes you money, you may be able to charge the company interest.

The company gets a corporation tax deduction for qualifying interest — and you receive the interest personally.

There are tax and reporting rules around this, so do it properly.

📊 AND THIS IS THE BIG ONE…

Stop looking at one tax in isolation.

I've seen people celebrate saving corporation tax while creating a bigger personal tax bill somewhere else.

That's not tax planning.

The aim isn't to move the tax around.

The aim is to look at the WHOLE picture and legally reduce the overall tax cost.

There are so many completely legitimate things business owners can do that they simply don't know about.

And apparently I've become far too excited about telling Instagram all of them 😂

So if you own a business, follow me.

I'll keep sharing the things I talk to my clients about every day — tax, profit, cash flow and making your business actually work for you.

And send this to another business owner who is probably paying more tax than they need to 👀

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36 Bear Street
Barnstaple

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