Who

Who we are

 

Sinclair McKinsley is a well-established independent firm of Chartered Certified Accountant, registered auditor and business advisor. Our services deliver a cost-effective and productive solution to all your accountancy and taxation needs, giving you the peace of mind you have worked so hard to deserve. Our service provision is broad and extensive, with specialist expertise in the manufacturing, construction, retail, property management, Healthcare, fabrication and hotel and restaurant sectors.

 

How we work with our clients

 

When you choose an accountant it is not just technical knowledge and reasonable fees you are looking for. You are also looking for flexibility, credibility, attention to detail and above all someone you can trust and delegate your financial affairs to with complete confidence. We aim to build a personal relationship with all our clients and work with them on a long-term basis. We maintain regular contact with them to discuss both ongoing issues and recent developments, even after a particular assignment may be over. In an ever-changing business world, it is vital to be on top of events and react quickly to new situations, and we like our clients to feel they are ahead of the game. 

Our approach to tax planning

 

Tax evasion is a crime. It is the deliberate concealment of taxable income or the deliberate over-statement of allowable expenses in order to reduce your tax liability. We at Sinclair Mckinsley never condone tax evasion in any way. There are plenty of ways to reduce your tax bill quite legally without resorting to evasion.
Tax avoidance is the active management of your financial affairs with a view towards minimising your tax liability by working within the rules. This is perfectly legal and is what Sinclair Mckinsley specialise in. Our philosophy can be summed up by the extract below from a famous quote by the Honourable Learned Hand, US Appeals Court Judge, in the case of Helvering v. Gregory (1934).

 

Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes. Nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.

 

We at Sinclair McKinsley prefer to operate a different distinction – that between tax mitigation and highly artificial tax avoidance schemes. We favour tax mitigation as it is based on established tax planning techniques which have been around for years and do not have to be reported to the tax authorities. Artificial tax avoidance schemes however do have to be reported to the authorities and are usually based on exploiting temporary loopholes that are soon closed down, often involving off-shore tax havens. We do not favour these artificial schemes as their legality is often questionable and they tend not to reflect the economic substance of the underlying transactions. In addition, they often have a fairly short life as legislation is enacted to close them down once they become widely known. Furthermore, it can give the tax authorities an open invitation to investigate the affairs of anyone using such schemes. In adopting this approach we are marching in step with the ACCA who discourage the use of artificially contrived schemes by their members but are in favour of tax mitigation.