Hospitality & Leisure
Specialist Accountants for Restaurants, Pubs, Hotels & Leisure Businesses
Hospitality runs on thin margins, unpredictable footfall and one of the most complex payrolls in the UK, yet most accountants treat it like any other set of books. They file your VAT, miss the tronc savings, and never mention the reliefs sitting right in front of them. We do the opposite. Led by Chartered Tax Advisers with first-hand HMRC experience, we treat your numbers as a live planning opportunity, not a year-end formality.
The Hospitality Issues Most Accountants Miss
- Tips, service charge and the new tipping rules (the Allocation of Tips Act), and the National Insurance you may be paying needlessly.
- Getting VAT right across food, drink, accommodation and mixed supplies.
- High staff turnover and a complicated payroll of part-time, seasonal and zero-hours staff.
- Thin gross margins and seasonal cash-flow swings.
- Knowing what to reclaim and what to capitalise on a fit-out or refurbishment.
How Merit Helps Hospitality Businesses
- A properly structured tronc/troncmaster scheme that removes National Insurance on qualifying tips, keeping you compliant with the latest tipping legislation.
- VAT reviews that recover overpaid tax. We reclaimed over £260,000 for one restaurant group that had been wrongly treating discretionary service charge as VATable.
- Full payroll with tips, pensions and holiday pay handled accurately and on time.
- Capital allowances reviews on fit-outs, kitchens and equipment to claim the tax most accountants leave behind.
- Real-time margin and cash-flow reporting, so you see gross profit by site, not twelve months too late.
Why Hospitality Operators Choose Merit Over an Ordinary Accountant
We’re Chartered Tax Advisers, not just accountants, the highest tax qualification in the UK, and our partners have built and run real businesses, so we know what a bad week of trade actually does to your cash position. In the last two financial years we’ve saved clients over £9.2 million in tax. Fixed fees, plain English, no obligation.
