Accountants in Inverness
Inverness is the commercial centre for a third of Scotland's land mass, and the business questions here are shaped by distance and by season.
The business base in Inverness
Inverness serves an enormous area, which means a business here often has customers hours away and a cost base that reflects it. Tourism is the most visible sector, sharpened considerably by the North Coast 500, and it brings a season that is intense and short. Around it sit distilleries and food and drink producers, a growing renewables and grid-infrastructure sector, life sciences at the campus, and the professional services that support all of them.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise operates here rather than Scottish Enterprise, with its own remit and its own funding, which genuinely changes what support a growing business can access. Businesses that follow generic UK guidance end up applying to the wrong body.
How we work with businesses in Inverness
Buzz has no Scottish office, and we would rather say that plainly than put a rented address on a page to look local. Work runs by phone, video call and WhatsApp, with a named accountant rather than a call queue, unlimited questions at no hourly charge, and FreeAgent included.
Remote and video working is not a compromise in the Highlands, it is how business already runs. An hour's drive to a meeting is an hour nobody gets back.
What we do for Inverness businesses
A short season, long distances and a funding landscape that is not the one the rest of the UK is working from.
- Seasonal cashflow planning — a rolling forecast that shows what the winter looks like while there is still time to do something about it
- Holiday lets and second properties — the tax treatment of letting, including the 8% Additional Dwelling Supplement on purchase and the rules on what qualifies
- Funding through Highlands and Islands Enterprise — the accounting and tax consequences of grant funding, and which body you should actually be talking to
- Food and drink production — stock, duty and export questions for producers, and the margin detail that decides whether growth is worth having
- Payroll for seasonal teams — variable hours, holiday pay and auto-enrolment for staff who are only with you for part of the year
Questions we get asked in Inverness
We make almost all our money between May and September. How do we survive winter?
By treating the winter as a planned position rather than a hope. That means a rolling twelve-month cashflow forecast built from the season you have just had, a clear view of what the business can afford to draw out before October, and decisions about staff and maintenance taken in advance. Seasonal businesses very rarely fail in the busy months. They fail in February, having spent the summer's cash.
Should I buy a holiday let through a company?
Run the numbers before deciding, because in Scotland the entry cost is higher than people expect. The Additional Dwelling Supplement is 8% of the whole purchase price and a company pays it on its very first property, with no exemption. That is £24,000 on a £300,000 purchase, payable in cash at completion. The Corporation Tax and interest arguments for using a company still exist, but they have to overcome that first.
Which enterprise agency should we be dealing with?
Highlands and Islands Enterprise, not Scottish Enterprise, which covers most of the rest of the country. HIE has its own remit and its own funding reflecting a genuinely different economic geography, and businesses that follow generic guidance often spend months applying to the wrong body. Business Gateway is the starting point for early-stage support either way.
Looking for an accountant in Inverness?
Tell us what you need and we will come back to you, usually the same working day. No call centre, no script.
We work right across Scotland
Pick your town for the local detail — what the business base actually looks like there, and the questions that come up most often.
See the full Scotland page for what changes at the border, the guides and the rest of it.
