Succession is the part owners leave latest and regret leaving. Business property relief can take qualifying business assets out of an inheritance tax charge, but it depends on what the business does and how the assets are held, and rules in this area have been changing. Whether you sell, pass shares to family, or wind down, the tax outcomes are very different and most of the planning has to happen years before the event.

People stay with an accountant far past the point of usefulness because moving feels disloyal or difficult. It is neither. We write for professional clearance and your records, take over the HMRC authorisations, and pick up from where things are. The most common thing we find in a long-standing arrangement is not error — it is that nobody has looked at the structure since it was set up.

Winchmore Hill produces a particular kind of client: someone running a small practice or trade from modest premises, often alongside employment or a property. The question is nearly always the same one — how much of this is taxable, and when do I stop being a sole trader.

• Small business accountant, North London
• Landlords and rental income
• Start-ups and new companies
• Accountants in Southgate
• Accountants in Palmers Green

Property values here mean inheritance tax is a live question for families who would not describe themselves as wealthy and who hold very little that is liquid. That combination — a large asset and a small cash balance — is the whole of the difficulty.

There is an additional allowance for the family home

Alongside the ordinary nil-rate band there is a further allowance that applies where a residence passes to direct descendants — children, grandchildren and some others. It is not automatic in every situation, it can be lost by the way a will is drafted, and it is reduced for larger estates. A will written before it existed may not be arranged to use it.

Unused allowances can pass between spouses

Where the first spouse or civil partner to die does not use their allowances, the unused proportion can generally be claimed on the second death. This is frequently missed, particularly where the first death was many years earlier and the paperwork has gone. It is worth establishing what was used at the time rather than leaving executors to reconstruct it later.

The tax is due before the house can be sold

This is the practical trap. Inheritance tax generally has to be paid before probate is granted, and the house usually cannot be sold until probate is granted. There are instalment options for property and there are ways to fund the payment, but a family that has not thought about it in advance discovers the problem at the worst possible moment.

• Inheritance tax planning
• Estates and wills
• Tax rates and allowances

Many Winchmore Hill companies were set up decades ago, with the founder, a spouse and sometimes grown-up children as directors or shareholders. Since 18 November 2025, Companies House has required every director, and every person with significant control, to verify their identity. The same rule covers someone who holds the title but has not been involved day to day for years.

For family companies this raises questions nobody has asked in a long time. Who is actually on the register? Is the list of people with significant control still correct after gifts of shares or a death in the family? Does a retired parent still need to be a director at all? Getting the register right now is also the first step in succession planning, because it shows what is really held and by whom.

We check the public record against what you believe it says, deal with the filings and help each person through verification. Winchmore Hill is part of the London Borough of Enfield. Our page for accountants in Enfield covers the whole borough, and our page for accountants in North London covers the wider area.

• Accountants in Enfield
• Accountants in North London
• People with significant control
• Directors’ responsibilities

Winchmore Hill station is on Great Northern, with no direct rail link to Finchley, but the 125 bus starts at Station Road in Winchmore Hill and runs via Southgate, Whetstone and North Finchley to Finchley Central.

You do not have to come in: you can work with us entirely by phone, email and video call, and we respond within one working day.

Winchmore Hill is in the London Borough of Enfield, so Enfield Council sends your business rates bill and deals with premises licences, street trading and planning. None of that goes on a tax return, but rates are a fixed cost that can be relieved or appealed, and licence fees and timings belong in any plan for opening or changing premises.

The premises around The Green are mostly small — consulting rooms, salons, independent shops — which is the range where small business rate relief does the most work and where a second property most easily removes it.

Small business rate relief is set nationally and applied by the council: a business with one property whose rateable value is below £15,000 can get relief, and below £12,000 the relief is 100%. Taking on a second property can take it away from the first, so it is worth checking before you sign a lease rather than after the bill arrives.

• Enfield Council: business and licensing
• Enfield Council: business rates relief
• Enfield Council: business licence and permit applications

The services we provide in Winchmore Hill include personal tax and self-assessment, bookkeeping, VAT returns and registration, payroll and year-end accounts and corporation tax. Each has its own page with what is included and how we work.