Below, you will find Abingdon Accountancy Centre's ten top tips                       to legitimately reduce your tax bill:

1) If your spouse/civil partner earns less than the single persons allowance of £6,475 per year and helps out in your business you can pay them a wage to reduce your taxable profits. Currently a wage of up to £105 per week will not create a national insurance charge, but it will also help your spouse gain credits toward the state pension and other state benefits.

2) If your children are at least 13, work in the business and earn less than the personal allowance, you can also pay them a wage to to reduce your taxable profit.

3) Make sure that you buy assets such as equipment, computers, motor vehicles etc at the right time to maximise the tax relief.  If you purchase equipment just before your year end you will bring forward the tax relief for capital allowances, which will normally be due at 100 percent of the cost for the first year.

4) You should check that the amount of expenditure allocated for private use is reviewed each year with your accountant in order to reduce the risk of enquiry.

5) If your business has made a loss, make sure you have claimed relief for the loss by setting it off against profits made in earlier years, and/or your other income for the same or previous year before carrying the balance forward to set against future profits.

6) Just because you don't have a receipt doesn't mean that you aren't entitled to claim for an expense as a business deduction, but you do need to have a record of the expense in some form.

7) The lower your stock value, the lower the profits on which you pay tax. If you believe you cannot sell the stock for at least what you paid for it, or the cost of production, you can reduce the stock value.

8) When you take on a new employee, make sure you either get a P45 from them or get them to sign a form P46. You will need this to ensure your employee receives the right level of allowances against their wages. This is particularly important for part time employees, and family members who work for you.

9) If you have a limited company, have you considered whether cars used in the business are better owned personally by you or by the business? If you own the car personally you will not be taxed on a benefit in kind and can claim a mileage allowance for the business journeys at the approved rate of 40p or 25p per mile.

10) Do you have the right legal structure for your business? If you are a sole trader or partnership paying higher rate tax you should consider becoming a limited company.