Case Studies

Case Study: Holiday park owner receives almost £500,000 from HMRC thanks to unique VAT methodology

Cotterhill Limited operates eight Maguires Country Parks across Northumberland, County Durham and North Yorkshire, primarily offering holiday homes and residential homes across its impressive portfolio of sites. 

VAT Director Alex Nicholson made the clients aware of an opportunity to reclaim overpaid VAT thanks to a unique methodology he has devised for valuing the removable contents sold as parts of caravans and lodges.

Case Study: A long term relationship pays dividends

Our clients, a farming husband and wife partnership, have been long standing accounting clients of Armstrong Watson. Over the last few years they have been reducing their farming business taking the opportunity to sell land. Two years ago our Financial Planning Consultant, together with a Tax Consultant, were introduced to advise on potential capital gains and inheritance tax issues because some of the land had development potential.

Case Study: Succession - Who do you Trust?

“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Never a truer statement, yet trying to plan for the inevitable can seem like you are tempting fate!  Still, please do not underestimate how succession planning in the caravan park industry, as in many family businesses, can without a doubt be complicated.

In many estates, the assets of the mother and father can be released into cash and so this can be easily divided between the children.  Where only some of the next generation wish to continue in the business, estate planning can be much more complex.

Case Study: Cricket Scotland Limited

Jim Lockhart has worked with Cricket Scotland Limited for over a decade providing business advice on their audit and tax accounts. 

Case Study: McGowan Miller Limited, South West Scotland

Douglas Russell has advised McGowan Miller Construction for over 8 years, providing recurring services for accounts, tax returns, payroll and financial planning.

Case Study: Restructuring of a caravan park business

We have advised a number of parks on how they can benefit from a corporate relief that allows groups of companies, if they meet certain conditions, to dispose of one park through a limited company, and not pay Capital Gain Tax on the corporate disposal.

Case Study: Caravan and Lodge Park – value circa £2 million

We were engaged following the death of one of the owners of the park to deal with an HMRC enquiry into the claim for Business Property Relief (BPR) on the deceased’s estate.  HMRC were suggesting that no claim was available against their share of the park's value, placing around half of the holiday park into the estate, which would have resulted in an increase in the IHT liability of around £400,000.

Case Study: Different level of service leads to strategic growth for Brocklesby Limited

Armstrong Watson were appointed to act for Robert Brocklesby personally and his group of companies in order to realise the commercial growth potential of the group.

Case Study: Tax Investigations in the Hospitality Sector

An independent analysis of HMRC enquiry data by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has revealed nearly 60% of businesses, within the hospitality sector, owe extra tax after an investigation. That alarming success rate is one of the reasons why we encourage our hospitality clients to subscribe to our Tax Investigation Service.

Case Study: Tax Investigations in the Manufacturing Sector

Assembling a tax enquiry

This engineering company received an enquiry notice from HMRC asking to review the reported number of associated companies and its effect on the corporation tax computations. The initial review revealed that one of the three associated companies had been missed and further tax would be due.