Northern Ireland is our largest base. Full accounting, advisory, tax and coaching from Ballymena — plus real experience with the cross-border detail .
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Most NI businesses sell services, and for them none of the Windsor Framework applies. Three questions and you will know which you are.
Do you move physical goods, in or out?
Where do those goods come from or go to?
Do you know whether you hold an XI EORI number?
We will send the written version with what it means for you. Nothing else — or book a call if you would rather talk.
Corporation Tax, VAT registration, National Insurance, capital gains and Companies House are UK-wide and behave identically in Ballymena and Birmingham. These four do not.
Under the Windsor Framework, Northern Ireland stays aligned with EU VAT and customs rules for goods while following UK rules for services. Two NI businesses selling to the same Dublin customer can face entirely different treatment because one ships product and the other sells advice.
The statutory three-step dismissal procedure is still mandatory here, having gone in GB in 2009. The Equality Act 2010 does not apply. Employers with eleven or more staff file annual fair employment monitoring returns to the Equality Commission.
Rates here are made up of a regional rate and a district rate, administered through Land and Property Services rather than the English business rates system, with its own reliefs and its own bills.
Own courts, own statutes, own solicitors' profession. An England and Wales contract or handbook is not an NI document, and an E&W-qualified solicitor cannot represent you at an Industrial Tribunal here.
Northern Ireland is Buzz's biggest client base of a GB firm
A real office on Fenaghy Road, Ballymena, open for appointments
Staff at which NI fair employment monitoring returns become a legal obligation
NI town pages on this site
Most coverage of the Windsor Framework treats it as a burden. For a business that sells physical goods into the Republic or onward into the EU, it is closer to the opposite, and that is worth stating plainly because a lot of NI owners have never had it put to them that way.
A Great Britain business selling product to a customer in Dublin is exporting to a third country. There are customs formalities, and import VAT falls due at the far end for the customer to fund and reclaim. A Northern Ireland business supplying the same VAT-registered Irish customer zero-rates the sale and the customer accounts for it as an acquisition.
The advantage is real, and it only holds if the paperwork is set up to match it. Three things decide whether it does:
Map your actual routes once, properly, rather than deciding shipment by shipment as each one comes up. It is an afternoon's work and it settles the question for years.
The detail, with thresholds and worked examples, is in our cross-border VAT guide.
Herd basis, farmers' averaging, and the reality that a farm's profit does not behave like other profit. NI's largest sector by a distance, and one where the reliefs are worth real money when they are used properly.
Stock and work in progress valued on a basis that holds month to month, capital allowances claimed properly, and the goods movement position mapped once rather than argued about per shipment.
A cost base dominated by vehicles, fuel and drivers, which is exactly what gets priced into a job badly. Plus the customs paperwork that comes with the routes.
CIS, the domestic reverse charge, and the employed-or-self-employed question that gets more expensive to get wrong every year.
Property held in Northern Ireland, with the reporting and planning that goes with it, alongside the main business accounts.
The growing Belfast base, where the work is services rather than goods — so none of the Windsor Framework applies, and the real question is how the owners take money out.
An annual budget, a rolling 12-month cashflow forecast, regular management accounts and an advisory meeting every month or quarter. We compare actual results against the plan, explain what has changed, and help you decide what to do next.
Start with the accounts and add the advice when you are ready. Most clients mix and match.
Bookkeeping, accounts, VAT and payroll handled for you, software included.
See packagesProactive planning and HMRC support, including the cross-border detail.
Explore taxManagement accounts, forecasting and cashflow support for better decisions.
Explore advisory1-to-1 business coaching for clarity, momentum and a better-run business.
Explore coachingNorthern Ireland is our largest base office. Pick your town for the local detail — what the business base actually looks like, the sectors we see most there, and how easy it is to get to us.
Most of UK tax applies identically in Northern Ireland. These are the parts that do not — written out properly, because getting them wrong is expensive .
EU rules for goods, UK rules for services. The sentence that causes more confusion than anything else in NI business tax.
A separate legal jurisdiction with its own employment law. Pay and tax work as they do in GB; a fair chunk of the rest does not.
Its own rating system, two components, administered differently from England and Wales.
Farming has its own tax rules because farming income does not behave like other income. Used properly they are worth real money.
One of NI's strongest sectors and one of the most penalty-prone for paperwork.
The tax work is identical. HMRC applies the same rules, rates and deadlines across the UK, so Corporation Tax, Self Assessment, PAYE, VAT and Making Tax Digital all work exactly as they do in GB, and the pricing is the same. Three things genuinely differ. Goods moving GB to NI to EU sit under the Windsor Framework's dual VAT arrangement. Northern Ireland is a separate legal jurisdiction, so contracts and employment law follow NI law rather than England and Wales. And rates are charged under the NI system rather than English business rates.
Only if you move physical goods. Northern Ireland stays aligned with EU VAT and customs rules for goods while following UK rules for services, which means a business selling goods GB to NI, NI to the Republic or NI to the EU faces a different treatment from one selling consultancy across the same borders. In practice that affects invoicing, evidence requirements, whether an EORI number is needed and how movements are declared. If you sell services only, none of it applies to you. Getting it wrong is expensive to unwind, so it is worth settling before the first shipment .
Yes, and it is routine for us rather than an exception — euro invoicing, exchange differences, Irish and EU VAT treatment, and the practical question of which entity should hold the contract. Funding routes through Invest NI and InterTradeIreland come into planning conversations where they are relevant. What we do not do is Irish tax compliance: a business with a taxable presence in the Republic needs an accountant registered there for its Irish filings, and we will say so and work alongside them .
No. Northern Ireland is our largest base, and we work with businesses right across the region — Belfast, Derry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone and Fermanagh — not just those close to the office. The Ballymena office is at Unit 13:62 Fenaghy Road, BT42 1FL, and you are welcome to meet there by appointment. Most work runs by phone, video and WhatsApp, which for a region where an hour's drive is common is usually the more sensible use of everyone's morning.
Ask before assuming it is. Northern Ireland is a separate legal jurisdiction with its own solicitors' profession and its own employment law, so contracts, handbooks and disputes need documents drafted for NI law rather than an England and Wales template with the name changed. Where regulated legal work is needed, the route runs through an appropriately qualified firm for the jurisdiction. Accounting, tax, payroll and advisory carry across without qualification. See our legal services page and raise the jurisdiction point at the first conversation.
More than most GB employers expect, because employment law here is devolved rather than reserved. The statutory three-step disciplinary and dismissal procedure is still legally mandatory in NI, having been abolished in GB in 2009, and skipping it makes a dismissal automatically unfair. The Equality Act 2010 does not apply; separate NI discrimination orders do, and religious and political belief are protected. Employers with eleven or more staff must register with the Equality Commission for fair employment monitoring and file annual returns. Cases go to Industrial Tribunals, and the Labour Relations Agency does the job Acas does in GB.
Yes, and you do not have to make the call yourself — which matters more in a small business community where you will run into them again. We write for professional clearance and your records, take over HMRC agent authorisation and set up software while we wait. Most handovers complete within a couple of weeks and the hold-up is nearly always the other firm's reply. Check the notice period in your engagement letter, and make sure work you have paid for has been delivered before you move.
FreeAgent Partner, ICPA registered, GAP coaching certified, with practical experience across industries.
Fixed fees for sole traders and startups, bespoke proposals for limited companies.
Compliance, forecasting and leadership coaching support at every stage of growth.
Straightforward guidance from people who pick up the phone.
Tell us what you need and we will come back to you from Ballymena, usually the same working day.
Prefer to talk first? Call the Ballymena office on 028 2522 0100, or:
