Statutory accounts
Annual accounts for companies and LLPs prepared under United Kingdom accounting standards and filed at Companies House on time, together with the corporation tax computations that follow from them.
Services
Accounting
The foundation on which every other matter depends.
The foundation
Sound accounts are the beginning of sound advice
Every opinion we give rests on figures we trust. We prepare accounts for individuals, companies, partnerships, trusts and estates to a standard that treats them as craft rather than compliance: reconciled without exception, presented with clarity, and delivered when promised. Where a client's affairs are complex, the accounts are where that complexity is first made legible.
For families and their enterprises we can go further and act as the finance function itself, so that the owners see their position clearly and the directors of the practice see it early enough to advise.
What we do
Management accounts and reporting
Monthly or quarterly management accounts, cash flow and forecasting, presented in a form that owners and boards can act upon rather than merely receive.
Bookkeeping and record keeping
Disciplined bookkeeping on the cloud platforms our clients prefer, maintained to a standard that satisfies Making Tax Digital and, more importantly, satisfies us.
Company secretarial
Statutory registers, confirmation statements, filings, share transfers and board minutes, kept current and correct so that the corporate record never lags behind the corporate reality.
Outsourced finance function
A complete finance department for enterprises that do not need one in house: bookkeeping, payroll, VAT, management reporting and a director's eye over all of it.
Business and share valuations
Valuations of businesses and shareholdings prepared to recognised methodologies for tax, transactions, matrimonial proceedings and succession, and defended when they are challenged.
Reconciled without exception. Delivered when promised.Aubert & Merian
Services
Tax
Planning and compliance for private clients, trusts and estates.
Our philosophy
The right amount of tax, now and in the future
We bring together all aspects of a client's taxation so that the impact of tax is reduced within the law and the benefits of wealth can be enjoyed. Our work spans planning and compliance across income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax, the taxation of trusts and estates, the position of internationally connected clients, and the defence of clients in dispute with HMRC.
Where a matter calls for it we work alongside specialist tax lawyers and tax barristers, so that the advice we give is not only efficient but robust and able to withstand challenge.
The matters entrusted to us
Tax planning and compliance
Self assessment returns for individuals, partnerships and trusts prepared with care, with planning across the tax year that is driven by your objectives rather than by the calendar.
Trusts and estates planning
The creation, taxation and reporting of trusts, the administration of estates and the returns of trustees and personal representatives, a particular specialism of the practice.
Inheritance tax planning and compliance
Lifetime and death planning, the reliefs for business and agricultural property, the treatment of pensions from April 2027, and the returns and accounts that follow.
Capital gains tax planning and compliance
The timing and structuring of disposals of property, shares and businesses, the reliefs available and the reporting within the deadlines HMRC now imposes.
International tax advice for private clients
The statutory residence test, arrival and departure planning, the regime for foreign income and gains, offshore trusts and the anti avoidance rules that apply to United Kingdom residents with structures abroad.
Strategic tax planning for matrimonial assets
The tax consequences of separation and divorce, the capital gains rules for transfers between spouses, and the presentation of financial positions in a form that lawyers and the court can use.
HMRC enquiries, disputes and investigations
Enquiries into returns, compliance checks and information notices, handled so that HMRC receives what it is entitled to and nothing that it is not; and where matters go further, Code of Practice 8 and 9 investigations, voluntary disclosures, penalties, alternative dispute resolution and appeals to the tribunal, conducted with specialist counsel where the matter demands it.
Corporate and LLP taxation
Corporation tax compliance and advice for companies, together with the particular requirements of LLPs and partnerships, prepared with the same care we bring to the people behind them.
Property taxes and stamp duty
Stamp duty land tax on acquisitions, the taxation of residential, commercial and agricultural property, and the choice between personal and corporate ownership.
Employment taxes
Payroll, benefits in kind and their mandatory payrolling from April 2027, employment related securities and the taxation of directors and owners.
Charitable giving and heritage assets
Tax relief for giving, the structuring of philanthropy, and the taxation of art, antiques and heritage property including conditional exemption.
Efficient, robust and able to withstand challenge.Aubert & Merian
Services
Advisory
Structure, strategy and the judgement to see the whole.
Our approach
Where accounting judgement meets commercial reality
Our advisory work is for clients whose personal and business interests are intertwined: entrepreneurs, family enterprises, professional practices and individuals of substance. We provide strategic, integrated advice that protects what has been built and prepares it for what comes next, whether that is growth, a transaction, a reorganisation or the passing of an enterprise to the next generation.
We do not offer opinions in isolation. Every recommendation is made with the accounts, the tax position and the family's intentions in view, and every structure we help to create is then maintained by the practice with the same discipline.
Where we advise
Private client advisory
Bespoke counsel for individuals and families on the organisation of their affairs: the composition of the personal balance sheet, the ownership of assets, and the strategy that turns intentions into a coherent plan.
Business advisory
Financial insight for owner managed businesses: structure, profitability, cash flow, governance and the disciplined reporting that lets owners make decisions on facts rather than instinct.
Corporate advisory
Counsel to boards and shareholders of established companies on strategy, financing, reorganisation and the commercial and tax consequences of expansion, including the choice of vehicle for new ventures.
Restructuring, exits and transactions
Mergers, demergers, acquisitions, disposals and the partial or full exit of owners, with the reliefs, anti avoidance provisions, clearances and transaction documents reviewed and the reporting completed.
Estate architecture
The design of the structural framework through which an estate passes: family investment companies, trust architecture, lifetime gifting and the integration of pensions, built to endure regulatory change.
Retirement and pensions
The tax treatment of pension contributions and withdrawals, the position of pensions within the estate from April 2027, and the planning that reconciles retirement with succession.
Tax planning and structuring with specialist counsel
For matters of planning and structure we work alongside specialist tax lawyers and tax barristers, bringing the practice's accounting judgement together with legal counsel of the first rank. Together we structure transactions, extraction and succession so that the tax result is efficient, robust and able to withstand challenge. However sophisticated or bespoke the arrangement, every compliance requirement is then met to the highest standard, year after year, so that what was well designed remains well kept.
Your estate has a structure, whether you designed it or not.Aubert & Merian
Services
Family Office
The whole of a family's affairs, managed as one.
In a nutshell
The experience of an in house team
We manage all aspects of a family's tax and accounting affairs so that its members can be confident that their businesses, investments and wealth are structured efficiently and that every obligation to HMRC has been met. We do not require a client to have an established family office; our purpose is to provide the experience of one, an in house team that knows the whole picture and acts before it is asked.
We want to be there through the ups and downs, giving pragmatic, focused and above all honest advice, working with a family to put it ahead of the curve, and working seamlessly with its lawyers, investment managers and other advisers so that the best advice, service and value are combined rather than duplicated.
Our approach
Proactivity over reactivity
I · Information
We obtain a detailed understanding of a family's affairs, ordinarily by reviewing the composition of the personal balance sheet and exploring intentions for businesses, investments and wealth.
II · Strategy
We develop a clear and coherent tax strategy, broken into the areas where we have identified concern or opportunity, driven always by the family's own objectives.
III · Review
We revisit the strategy regularly as a sense check, and whenever circumstances or the law change in a way that could bear upon it.
IV · Implementation
We follow advice through to the end, coordinating lawyers and other advisers, driving progress and communicating it, so that a complex process is as streamlined as it can be.
V · Compliance
We prepare the returns, handle HMRC enquiries and maintain a comprehensive tax and transaction history available on demand.
What the family office provides
Consolidated tax and compliance
Every return for every member, company, partnership and trust in the family prepared by one team to one standard, with the disclosures for each transaction handled as part of the whole.
Wealth reporting
A consolidated view of the family's assets, income and liabilities across every holding and adviser, presented at the rhythm the family prefers and kept as the record of its affairs.
Structures created and rationalised
The creation, operation, restructuring and rationalisation of corporate groups, partnerships and trusts, whether building new and efficient structures or liquidating old and inefficient ones.
Coordination of advisers
A single point of contact for the family's lawyers, bankers, investment managers and trustees, so that advice is combined, sequenced and implemented rather than merely collected.
Governance and financial oversight
Support for family councils and boards with governance reviews, proportionate internal controls and the financial oversight that lets a family act as stewards rather than spectators.
The next generation
Preparing younger family members for the responsibilities that come with wealth, in concert with the succession planning set out on the page that follows.
Ahead of the curve, and ahead of the question.Aubert & Merian
Services
Wealth Succession
Passing wealth on in accordance with your wishes.
Passing wealth on
More than a financial transaction
The transfer of wealth from one generation to the next is an emotional and personal decision before it is a financial one. We give thoughtful counsel to families approaching the subject with younger members and help them establish a plan that passes wealth on in accordance with their objectives, with clarity of message, tax efficiency and accountability on the part of those who receive it.
An increasing number of families choose to transfer wealth during their lifetimes. Done well, this allows them to witness the effect of their support, to help family members when it matters, and to reduce the size of the taxable estate. Conversations about money, inheritance and responsibility can be charged; addressing them directly, with good advice in the room, is what allows a family's intentions to survive the family.
How wealth is passed on
Lifetime giving
Outright gifts, gifts into trust and the use of exemptions and reliefs, planned so that generosity in life does not create difficulty on death.
Trusts and structures for control
Trusts, family investment companies and partnerships that provide control, flexibility and protection for future generations, established with care and administered with discipline.
Family governance
Family charters, councils and decision making arrangements that give a family a way to talk about its wealth and a framework within which to act.
Next generation stewardship
Educating younger family members in the financial stewardship their inheritance will demand, so that they feel equipped rather than burdened by what they receive.
Business succession
The passing of a family enterprise to the next generation or its sale, with ownership, management and the reliefs for business property planned together rather than in sequence.
Wills and estate planning
Wills drafted with tax efficiency and without pitfalls, in concert with the family's lawyers, together with the estate accounting and inheritance tax compliance that follow.
Some things are built to be handed on.Aubert & Merian