Reductions in share capital where clients have erroneously issued too great a share are a major issue.

There are usually three reasons for this:

• the client has made an error with decimal points or numbers of zeros when setting up the company, issuing say 1000 £1 shares when they should have been 1p shares, or 1000 shares instead of 10.

• the client has issued share capital for the whole of an investment in a company where it later turns out to be more tax beneficial to invest as a loan.

• the client has decided to issue a large share capital as a matter of prestige without fully appreciating the consequences.

However it isn't as simple as just 'correcting an error'.