Skills, Growth & Knowledge

Understand how money works.

Practical guides to finance, crypto, global business and useful technology.

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Spotlight

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Making Tax Digital · Oct 18

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: Who Must Join and When

Check the MTD Income Tax thresholds, start dates, digital records and quarterly updates for sole traders and landlords.

IRS Form SS-4 with a Foreign entry on line 7b and an EIN confirmation card

EIN · Oct 16

EIN Without an SSN: How Non-US Founders Apply

A current IRS guide to Form SS-4, line 7b and EIN routes for international founders.

A director's loan ledger showing money moving between a company account and a director, with a nine-month deadline marker

director's loan · Oct 16

Director's Loan Account: The Section 455 Deadline and Charge

Track a director's loan account, the nine-month deadline, section 455 tax and benefit-in-kind rules.

Cyber Essentials for small business: an agreed scope of laptops, phones, cloud accounts and the office router covering five controls, with the self-assessment from £320 plus VAT and the Plus technical audit

Cyber Essentials · Oct 15

Cyber Essentials for Small Business: Scope, Controls, Cost

The five Cyber Essentials controls, what must be in scope, the 2026 auto-fail rules and what certification costs.

director pay · Oct 15

Salary vs Dividends for a UK Company Director in 2026/27

Compare salary and dividends for a UK director using 2026/27 tax, payroll and profit rules.

Crypto

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Crypto tax · Oct 12

Accepting Crypto Payments as a Small Business: Tax, VAT and Records

How UK and US rules treat crypto a business receives as payment, the VAT position and the records to keep.

DAC8 timeline: data collection from 1 January 2026, self-certification of older accounts by 1 January 2027, first exchange between tax authorities by 30 September 2027

Crypto tax reporting · Oct 10

DAC8 Crypto Reporting: What Exchanges Will Ask Your Company For

What DAC8 means for a company with a crypto exchange account, and what to prepare before 2027.

Two glass vessels holding layered paper reserves beside a ledger.

stablecoins · Sep 24

USDT vs USDC: What You Actually Hold

Separate issuer backing, custody, networks and your route back to spendable money.

A lockbox and key beside paths leading to a distant vault.

custody · Sep 14

Before You Buy Crypto: Custody, Liquidity and Risk

Map custody, selling and withdrawal risks before putting money into crypto.

Finance

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Timeline for the 2026 to 2027 tax year: payments on account on 31 January and 31 July 2027, each half of last year's tax, and the balancing payment on 31 January 2028.

Self Assessment · Oct 12

Payments on Account: How HMRC's Advance Tax Bills Work

Who pays them, why the first January bill is so large, and what a reduction costs if the estimate is wrong.

An illustrative invoice dated 1 October with net 14, 30 and 60 deadlines on 15 October, 31 October and 30 November.

invoicing · Oct 11

Invoice Payment Terms: Choose Net 14, 30 or 60

Choose invoice deadlines your cash flow can carry, with UK rules and worked examples for net 14, 30 and 60.

Bar chart: the same £6,800 profit falls in year 2 under the cash method and in year 1 under the accrual method

Accounting · Oct 10

Cash vs Accrual Accounting for Small Businesses: UK and US Rules

Cash vs accrual accounting with a worked example and the UK and US rules on who may use each.

Payments

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Direct Debit · Oct 13

Direct Debit for Small Business: Set Up, Notice and Refunds

How to collect UK payments on your own date: bank sponsorship, instructions, notice periods and refund risk.

Card payments · Oct 11

Card Processing Fees: Interchange, Caps and Surcharges

What card fees are made of, which part is capped in the EU and UK, and when a surcharge is allowed.

Invoice factoring: invoice, advance, customer payment and balance less fees.

Invoice finance · Oct 8

Invoice Factoring vs Discounting: Who Collects the Cash?

Compare invoice factoring and discounting by collections, cash released, fees and responsibility for unpaid invoices.

Global Business

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tax residence · Oct 14

Certificate of Tax Residence: A Practical Cross-Border Guide

How to document tax residence, claim treaty relief and avoid withholding delays.

CFC rules · Oct 14

CFC Rules: A Screening Guide for Foreign Company Owners

A practical CFC rules check for ownership, residence, income, exemptions and filing duties.

W-8BEN-E checklist: foreign entity under US rules, chapter 4 status as active or passive NFFE, and the limitation-on-benefits test for a treaty claim.

Tax forms · Oct 11

W-8BEN-E for Non-US Companies: Status, Treaty Claims, Expiry

Which companies use W-8BEN-E, how to pick the FATCA status, what a treaty claim needs and how long the form lasts.

AI

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UK GDPR · Oct 13

Automated Decision-Making Under UK GDPR: The 2026 Rules

When an AI tool decides about a person, what counts as human review and the four safeguards UK law now requires.

EU AI Act duties for businesses that use AI tools: what applies now and what applies to high-risk uses from 2 December 2027

AI regulation · Oct 10

EU AI Act for Small Businesses: What Applies When You Use AI Tools

What the EU AI Act asks of a small business that uses AI tools, after the July 2026 changes.

A person checks invoices beside three document review trays.

AI workflows · Sep 22

Build an Invoice Review Workflow with AI

Use synthetic invoices to separate extraction, validation, review and payment approval.

Software

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Email security · Oct 12

DMARC for Small Business: Protect Your Invoice Domain

SPF, DKIM and DMARC in the order the NCSC suggests, plus the Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.com sender rules.

Three offboarding tasks: map accounts, transfer work and revoke access; review administrators and recovery separately.

Account security · Oct 9

Employee Offboarding Access Checklist for Small Teams

A practical access checklist for staff departures, admin accounts, shared tools and business continuity.

A security key, recovery notebook and phone form an account recovery plan.

security · Sep 4

A Practical Security Setup for Your Money and Accounts

Secure email, sign-in and recovery, then rehearse how you would cope without your phone.

Start with a question

Reading path

New to crypto?

Understand custody, stablecoins and the route back to spendable money.

Reading path

Where did the cash go?

Connect profit, payment dates and the currencies your bills require.

Reading path

Building a business abroad?

Compare jurisdictions through banking, records and the work of running the company.

Reading path

Putting AI to work?

Check sources, test invoice workflows and keep your records portable.

Tools for founders

Where to register a company

23 jurisdictions compared on tax, fees, capital, remote setup and annual filings.

Calculator

Company filing deadlines

Enter your year end and get accounts, tax return and payment dates in 16 jurisdictions.

Table

VAT registration thresholds

Small-business VAT limits and rates in 30 European countries, with the EU €100,000 rule.

Calculators

Cash, savings and fund costs

Cash runway, emergency fund, fund fee and leveraged ETF calculators.

Knowledge you can use

Every guide connects an explanation to a calculation, comparison or checklist. Explore the full collection, follow a reading path, or learn how SGK Academy works.