Corporate tax advisors are bought for judgement rather than for compliance. A company's return has to be filed by somebody every year; an advisor is engaged when a question has arisen whose answer depends on the company's own facts and where being wrong costs more than the fee. Knowing which questions those are is most of the value of this page.
What separates an advisor from an accountant
An accountant preparing a company's return is doing compliance: taking finished figures and putting them in the right boxes by the right date. An advisor is asked a question before the figures exist. Should this refurbishment be split between repairs and capital? Does this development work meet the R&D definition? Are these two companies associated? Each of those changes the number the compliance work will later report, and each is a judgement somebody has to be accountable for.
How the work is priced
Three ways. Time, for open-ended advice. A fixed fee, for a defined piece of work such as an opinion on one transaction. Or a share of what is recovered, which is standard for R&D relief and for capital allowances and unusual for anything else. This site's fee record shows what that third group publishes: three of the ten UK firms read print a percentage of the tax benefit with a minimum beneath it, and seven print nothing at all.
What to ask before engaging one
Ask what the deliverable is. An opinion in writing that the company can rely on and show HMRC is a different product from a conversation. Ask what happens if HMRC enquires: whether defending the position is inside the fee, billed separately, or not offered. And from 18 May 2026, ask whether the firm is registered with HMRC, because anyone interacting with HMRC on a client's tax affairs must be, and the definition reaches tax advisers directly.
Questions people ask about corporate tax advisors
What does a corporate tax advisor do?
Answers questions whose outcome depends on a company's own facts, before the compliance work reports them: the capital and revenue split, whether work qualifies for R&D relief, whether companies are associated, how a disposal is taxed.
How much do corporate tax advisors charge?
None of the general advisers in this site's record publishes a fee. The three that do are R&D specialists charging between 5% and 15% of the tax benefit, each with a published minimum between £1,495 and £5,000.
Do I need an advisor as well as an accountant?
Not routinely. Compliance is annual and advice is occasional, and most owner-managed companies only need the second when a transaction or a relief question arises.