In July 2017 a retired GP was acquitted of attempting to hire a hitman to kill his financial advisor, who he blamed for him losing out on £300,000 due to missing a tax deadline.
It was said the retired GP was attempting to solicit the murder of his financial advisor by using a special browser on his computer to create an account on “Crime Bay by Chechen Mob” and choosing the option to “Kill the b*****d”.
This story made me think about how business owners and high-income earners put so much trust, in regards to their monetary affairs, in the hands of professionals such as financial advisors, bankers and accountants.
As accountants that specialise in bookkeeping and business growth we push to ensure our clients understand their own accounts for this very reason. It is a business owners responsibility to understand their general financial affairs and we love to help them get at least a basic understanding of this.
They receive monthly reports which shows them how they are doing on a month to month basis. Showing them important KPIs to monitor throughout the year and information to know that their business is heading in the right direction. This way if something starts to go wrong it is caught really early and can be fixed almost immediately.
Waiting to find out numbers at year end can be catastrophic for so many business owners and the yearend reports are set out for HMRC not the business owner. Yet there are so many businesses every year that only give their accountant paperwork to process in the month their deadline is for. No-one can give the best advice possible 21 months after an event.
I worry that these businesses, that are so far behind with their paperwork, are the ones that one day might find that they have missed out on crucial advice that could have saved them large amounts in tax. They probably wouldn’t be as drastic that they put a message out on a dark web for a hitman to commit a murder … but you just never know!!
