Specialists in
Legal firms

Your priority is to give the best possible legal service to your clients. At the same time, you need to stay on top of all your day-to-day practice management issues and keep your firm compliant with regulatory and reporting regimes.

So it makes sense to work with advisers experienced in the legal sector, like Moore Thompson Chartered Accountants, who understand the needs of professional practices like yours. Whether you are a sole practitioner or a multi-partner practice, our legal specialists are here to help. Our services for legal firms include:

Practice bookkeeping and accounts

Knowing what money is coming into and going out of your practice is essential to financial stability, assessing financial performance and establishing profit share. In preparing your accounts, we can also advise on the most appropriate way of accounting for complex issues, such as goodwill and premises, and on where improvements can be made

Tax Services

Including submitting tax returns tax planning for the practice and key individuals, ensuring practice is operating as efficiently as possible and that any transactions are conducted in the most tax-efficient manner. We can also provide dedicated tax advice for individuals on matters such as inheritance and capital gains tax

Management Accounts

Good quality management information is crucial to the successful running of your practice. We will provide you with regular management accounts that deliver the up-to-date information required to assist decision-making and to measure performance against forecasts

Trust and estate accounts

We can provide accounting assistance for any trusts or estates within your portfolio. This includes preparing tax returns, capital gains tax computations and inheritance tax returns, as well as estate accounts and accounts for the Court of Protection or in enduring power of attorney cases

Payroll

Outsourcing your payroll function can free up in-house time and resources for other priorities, making a real difference to the effective running of your practice. Moore Thompson offers a fast, efficient service for legal firms of all sizes

Trust review service

This service is designed to enhance the trust services you already provide, as well as reducing the risk of future litigation. For a fixed fee we will review a trust, based on information you supply, and advise on the suitability of existing investments, the tax treatment and on whether costs associated with investments held in the trust could be reduced

Solicitors’ Accounts Rules (SAR) compliance

Including the requirement for all firms handling client money to undergo a SAR compliance check each year: as well as preparing your annual compliance report, we will advise on any breaches or deviations from best practice and on measures to improve the efficiency of your systems and controls

Succession Planning

Part of running a successful practice today is thinking about the future and putting an effective succession plan in place. This may include grooming the practice order to achieve maximum value on a sale. We can assist with drawing up and implementing your succession plan, providing services including practice valuations and maximising the tax efficiency of a disposal.