GM Professional Accountants

16/10/2026

Rent in. Mortgage out. Job done?

Not quite. 🏠

Take a typical East London one-bed flat:
💷 Rent: £19,800 a year
📉 Mortgage interest, service charge, maintenance, insurance, agent fees and voids all come out first
🧾 Then Section 24 takes its share of the tax

What’s left? Just £914 a year on £115,000 of cash invested. That’s under 1%, not the 5% the headline yield suggests.

Most landlords never work out their true cash return. They track the rent, guess the costs, and assume capital growth will cover the rest.

Our latest guide shows you:
✅ Every cost quietly eating into your rental income
✅ How Section 24 changes your real return
✅ What Making Tax Digital means for landlords from April 2026
✅ When an SPV might protect your return better

Read the full guide here 👇
https://gmprofessionalaccountants.co.uk/2026/09/buy-to-let-true-cash-return/

Want to know what your property is really earning? Book a free consultation with GM Professional Accountants, serving landlords across London and Essex.

15/10/2026

Your property portfolio shows a paper profit. So why is the bank account always so tight?

It’s one of the most common frustrations we hear from UK landlords. The rent comes in every month, the accounts say you’re making money, yet there never seems to be any cash left over.

Usually the money is going somewhere you can’t easily see:
🏠 Mortgage capital repayments, which leave your account but never show up as an expense
🔧 Repairs, voids and refurbishments that hit all at once
📑 Tax bills based on profit, not on the cash you actually kept
💷 Section 24 limiting the mortgage interest you can claim

Profit and cash are not the same thing. Once you know where the gap is, you can start fixing it.

We’ve broken it down with a simple worked example in our latest guide 👇
https://gmprofessionalaccountants.co.uk/2026/09/property-portfolio-profitable-no-cash/

Want someone to look at your actual numbers? Book a Portfolio Health Review with GM Professional Accountants.
📞 0208 396 6128 | ✉️ [email protected]

13/10/2026

Essex landlords, April 2027 is closer than it looks 🏠

From April 2027, rental profits held personally are due to be taxed at new property income rates of 22%, 42% and 47%, two points above the current rates. If you're a higher rate landlord already losing out under Section 24 mortgage interest rules, this pushes the bill up again.

That's why more buy-to-let owners in Chelmsford, Southend, Colchester and Brentwood are asking us one question: should I move my portfolio into a limited company?

It can work well, but it's not a simple switch. Before you move anything, you need to look at:

🔹 Capital Gains Tax on the transfer, and whether incorporation relief could apply
🔹 Stamp Duty Land Tax, which can be the biggest cost if it's not planned properly
🔹 Remortgaging, since lenders treat company buy-to-let loans differently
🔹 How you'll take money out later, through salary, dividends or a director's loan

Get the timing or structure wrong and you could pay more tax moving the properties than you'd ever save.

We've written a full guide on property incorporation for Essex landlords, including what to check before April 2027 👇
https://gmprofessionalaccountants.co.uk/2026/10/property-incorporation-buy-to-let-essex/

Want to know if it makes sense for your portfolio? Book a Portfolio Health Review, and we'll look at your actual numbers.

📞 0208 396 6128
📧 [email protected]

12/10/2026

🍽️ Shoreditch and Old Street restaurant owners: the new tipping rules have been delayed, but your current duties haven’t.

The staff consultation rules were due on 1 October 2026. The government now says they’ll arrive by the end of 2026. When they do, you’ll need to consult your team on your tipping policy, review it at least every three years and share an anonymised summary of staff views. Get it wrong and a tribunal can award up to £5,000.

In the meantime, the 2024 rules still apply today:
✅ 100% of qualifying tips must go to staff
✅ Tips must be paid by the end of the following month
✅ You need a written tipping policy
✅ Records must be kept for three years

The mistakes we see most often across East London are card fees deducted from the tip pool, a tronc that isn’t truly independent (which means 15% employer NIC is due), and menu wording that makes a “discretionary” service charge liable to VAT.

Use the extra time now, before the Christmas rush.

👉 Read our full guide: https://gmprofessionalaccountants.co.uk/2026/09/restaurant-tipping-rules-shoreditch-old-street/

📞 Book a consultation at our Old Street office: 0208 396 6128

09/10/2026

Company directors, your 2025/26 tax return has new questions this year 📋

If you run a limited company, HMRC now asks:
✅ Is your company a close company?
✅ Company name and registration number
✅ Dividends you took from it
✅ Your percentage shareholding

Took no dividends? You still answer and enter 0.
Leave it blank and you could face a £60 penalty, on top of any late filing penalties.

Paper returns: 31 October 2026
Online returns and payment: 31 January 2027

Our full guide explains every box, with worked examples 👇
https://gmprofessionalaccountants.co.uk/2026/10/director-tax-return-2025-26/

Need help with your director tax return? Call 0208 396 6128 or book a free consultation.

Director tax return help in London for 2025/26. See the new close company dividend and shareholding questions, the £60 penalty and the 31 January deadline.

08/10/2026

📢 Landlords and sole traders: your second MTD quarter closed on 5 October

If your income is over £50,000, you have been on Making Tax Digital for Income Tax since 6 April 2026. That means your second quarterly update (covering 6 July to 5 October) is due to HMRC by 7 November 2026.

The ones we see slipping are usually not about the software. It is the receipts still sitting in a shoebox, rent that landed in a personal account, or repair costs nobody tagged properly. Fix those now and the November filing takes minutes, not a weekend.

Quick check before you file:
✅ All rent and income for July to October recorded digitally
✅ Expenses categorised, not just uploaded
✅ Bank feeds matched in Xero or your MTD software

And remember, your 2025/26 Self Assessment is still due by 31 January 2027, separate from the quarterly updates.

Not sure if you are set up right, or want someone to handle it for you? Our team does this every week for landlords and sole traders across London and Essex.

📞 0208 396 6128
📧 [email protected]
🌐 www.gmprofessionalaccountants.co.uk

08/10/2026

🏗️ Got CIS gross payment status? It's easier to lose than it used to be.

Since April 2026, HMRC can cancel it immediately over supply chain fraud, with a five year ban on reapplying. A few late returns can also fail your annual review.

Here's how to protect it 👇

https://gmprofessionalaccountants.co.uk/2026/10/protect-cis-gross-payment-status/

📞 0208 396 6128

Protect your CIS gross payment status after the April 2026 changes. Our Essex CIS accountant explains the HMRC annual review, late limits and fraud rules.

06/10/2026

Autumn Budget 2026 is coming — what should London business owners be watching? 🍂💷

With the Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026, now is a good time to review the areas that could affect your business, investments and personal tax position.

Here are four areas worth keeping on your radar:

🔹 Pension Tax Relief – Could existing tax advantages change?
🔹 Capital Gains Tax – Watch for any changes affecting asset and property disposals.
🔹 VAT Registration – Will the current registration threshold remain unchanged?
🔹 Business Rates – Could changes affect the cost of operating business premises?

The important thing is not to make decisions based on speculation. Wait for the confirmed announcements and understand how any changes apply to your circumstances.

📌 Save this post and review your plans after the Budget.

GM Professional Accountants
Clear guidance. Confident decisions.

05/10/2026

London developers: the Building Safety Levy is now live

From 1 October 2026, most new residential schemes in England that need building control approval pay a levy per square metre of floor space. London boroughs sit at the higher end of the rates, and the charge must be settled before your completion certificate is issued.

If it isn't in your appraisal, it's coming straight out of your margin. A few things worth checking now:
✅ Is the levy built into your budget for schemes not yet signed off?
✅ Could your site qualify for the brownfield discount or an exemption?
✅ Have you planned cash flow for payment ahead of completion?

Developers and contractors, how are you handling it? Absorbing it, or adjusting land offers to cover it?

Full guide here: https://gmprofessionalaccountants.co.uk/2026/09/building-safety-levy-property-developers-london/

01/10/2026

**London business owners: Turnover is growing, but is your business actually getting healthier?**

One mistake we see regularly is focusing on **revenue and year-end profit** while missing the numbers that show what is really happening inside the business.

At **GM Professional Accountants**, we recommend reviewing these numbers every month:

📊 **Gross Margin**
Are you generating more sales at the same profitability, or are rising costs quietly reducing your margin?

💷 **Debtor Days**
A profitable invoice sitting unpaid isn't cash. Track how quickly customers actually pay you.

🏦 **Cash Flow**
Look beyond your bank balance. Forecast upcoming VAT, PAYE, Corporation Tax, wages, suppliers and other commitments.

📈 **Business KPIs**
The right KPI depends on your sector. For example, construction businesses may need job-level profitability, while restaurants should closely monitor food and labour margins.

💰 **Tax Position**
Don't wait until the deadline to discover a large tax liability. Regular planning gives you more time to prepare.

🔎 **Monthly Management Accounts**
A year-end set of accounts tells you what happened. Monthly management accounts help you identify problems while there is still time to act.

At GM Professional Accountants, our monthly management accounts can include **P&L, balance sheet, cash flow and KPI reporting through Xero**, alongside financial advisory and cash-flow forecasting.

**A useful question for every London business owner:**

> If your sales increased by 20% next quarter, would your cash position improve — or would growth create a bigger funding gap?

**What do you monitor most closely: profit, cash flow, margins, debtor days or tax?**