Growth, Actually | Chapter 3: Paperwork That Pays
The simple habits that keep more of what you already earned.
Founders love to talk about growth as if it’s all about momentum. Big energy, bigger charts, the story you tell on stage. Then the year ends and the tax bill arrives quietly, like an uninvited editor, and rewrites the story you thought you were living.
Tax is not just compliance. It’s timing, cash, and margin. Treat it like an afterthought and you end up donating profit you’ve already sweated to earn. Treat it like a lever and you buy yourself time, control, and better terms.
Most teams pay tax they didn’t need to pay, or pay it sooner than they needed to, because product, finance, and the rules aren’t telling the same story. That doesn’t make you reckless. It makes you normal. The fix isn’t heroic. It’s routine. It’s language, record-keeping, and a calendar.
R&D and capital that buy you time
If you build technology, chances are you’ve tackled real uncertainty — not just routine product development. That often qualifies for R&D relief. But you only get it if you name the work for what it is, record it properly, and connect the costs to the problem you set out to solve.
Keep the notes. Track the time. File the invoices alongside the narrative. Good claims read like engineering. Bad claims read like marketing. One earns relief when cash is tight. The other earns questions.
Capital allowances sound dusty until you’ve priced a fit-out, bought machinery, or upgraded the kit that keeps your service alive. Depreciation is the accountant’s story. Allowances are the tax story. Put assets on a register, place them in the right pools, and think about timing and financing before you sign the final invoice.
The difference between sloppy and deliberate is often months of extra runway. Margin loves people who plan the paperwork before the paint dries.
VAT without the headaches
VAT is where good intentions go to sulk. Decide early whether your pricing talks in net or gross and stick to it. Watch the registration threshold before you trip it.
If you sell software abroad, learn the place-of-supply rules now, not when a customer’s finance team starts asking sharp questions.
Match your VAT scheme to your cash reality. Accrual accounting can flatter your numbers. Cash accounting can save your nerves. Either way, reconcile it every month so your model matches the money. That way the bill doesn’t arrive as a plot twist.
Structure that keeps stories straight
Structure isn’t glamorous. It’s risk management in plain clothes.
Keep trading risk away from the crown jewels. Put intercompany agreements in writing and at arm’s length. Make sure recharges make sense.
If you run multiple entities, build a rhythm that closes the loop every month, not once a year when everyone is already tired. Clean lines and clean flows produce clean answers. Those are what boards, auditors, and buyers look for when the pressure is on.
Quiet work, loud results
The real advantage is rarely a loophole. It’s about doing the small, dull things consistently.
We often bring in specialists for a short, targeted sweep. Recently that has included the team at Sedulo, who live in the detail of R&D, VAT, allowances and the rest. An hour with people who do this every day has a habit of paying for itself.
If profit buys you options, good tax timing buys you the months you need to use them. Investors notice the difference. So do teams who prefer sleeping in July.
Write down what you’re building. Log the costs against the work. Keep the asset register. Reconcile the VAT. Sense-check the structure.
None of this is exciting. All of it is effective. And it’s how you keep more of what you already earned.
