Banking platform Coconut has announced the launch of its smart business current account for freelancers and self-employed.
The Coconut Start account is accessible through a mobile app and includes features such as automated tax management, expense tools and VAT management.
It will also categorise expenses for tax and provide instant notifications.
Coconut's recent self-employment survey found that a quarter of such workers admitted that budgeting for taxes was one of their top five challenges.
The platform was founded by Sam O'Connor (picture above, left) and Adam Goodall (right), who met while training as accountants at PwC.
The company is backed by tech accelerator Techstars, which was one of 10 winners of the Nesta Open Up Challenge.
[caption id="attachment_4372" align="alignnone" width="560"] The Coconut mobile app[/caption]
Sam said: “The growth of self-employment in the UK is one of the biggest structural changes in our workforce of our time, but self-employed people are still one of the most underserved groups of businesses when it comes to banking products and services that meet their specific needs.
“Staying on top of tax and expenses, getting paid on time or managing an unpredictable flow of income is a big worry and time-suck for customers.
“And this is only going to become a bigger burden with Making Tax Digital requiring digital tax submissions quarterly instead of annually.”
HMRC's Making Tax Digital initiative is set to roll-out in April 2019.
“We created Coconut to sort out these challenges for freelancers and we ultimately aim to eliminate the need for tax returns, removing a huge amount of stress for business owners,” Sam added.
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