Corporate tax advice is worth buying for a narrow set of questions and is routinely bought for a wider one. The rates, thresholds, deadlines and penalties are all published and this site sets them out for nothing. What is worth a fee is the question whose answer depends on facts only the company has, and where getting it wrong costs a multiple of what the answer costs.
Published, therefore free
The corporation tax rate, the small profits rate and where marginal relief applies. When the tax is due and what late payment costs. What capital allowances are available and at what rate. What the CT600 requires. None of that changes with a company's circumstances and none of it needs advice; it needs reading, and every page on this site that states one of those figures links to the GOV.UK page it was read from.
Judgement, therefore chargeable
Whether a project meets the R&D definition. Whether an invoice is repair or improvement. Whether two companies are associated. Whether a payment is a distribution. Whether a disposal produces a chargeable gain and what the base cost is. Each of those requires somebody to look at the specific facts, form a view, and stand behind it, and each can move the tax by more than the advice costs.
How to buy it well
Frame the question narrowly and in writing. A firm asked whether a specific £180,000 refurbishment invoice can be split, with the invoice attached, gives a better and cheaper answer than one asked about refurbishments generally. Ask for the deliverable in writing. And ask what happens on enquiry, because an opinion the company can show HMRC is worth considerably more than one it cannot.
Questions people ask about corporate tax advice
When is corporate tax advice worth paying for?
When the answer turns on the company's own facts rather than on a published rule, and the amount at stake is a multiple of the fee. The R&D definition, the capital and revenue split, and the associated companies count are the common cases.
What can I answer without advice?
Anything published: the rates, the thresholds, the deadlines, the penalties, what capital allowances exist and at what rate, and what the return requires.
What should I ask for?
A written answer to a narrowly framed question, with the documents attached, and a clear statement of whether defending it on enquiry is included.