Accountants in Tottenham Court Road

A limited company juggles two regulators: Companies House wants accounts within nine months of year end, HMRC wants corporation tax paid at nine months and a day. Same starting point, different documents — and late filing penalties at Companies House escalate automatically and are rarely cancelled.

Compare accountants on the things that bite later: is the fee fixed and written down, what exactly is included, who does the work, how fast do they answer in January. Proximity to Tottenham Court Road stopped being the differentiator the day filings went electronic.

Compliance checks are usually specific: one return, one figure, one question. Answered promptly and with evidence, most close quickly. The expensive enquiries are the ones that started as unanswered letters.

Limited companies in CIS reclaim differently to sole traders — through payroll or the company tax return rather than Self Assessment. Plenty of construction companies sit on refundable deductions without realising; a quick review of the CIS position often pays for itself immediately.

HMRC runs nudge-letter campaigns to crypto holders based on exchange data. If there are undeclared gains in past years, a voluntary disclosure is dramatically cheaper than waiting for the letter — penalties are scaled to cooperation.

Auto-enrolment applies from the first eligible employee: assess, enrol, contribute, declare. The Pensions Regulator does check, and the fines for ignoring it are out of proportion to how simple compliance actually is.

If your last Self Assessment bill was over £1,000, HMRC usually asks for next year's tax in advance — half on 31 January, half on 31 July. It's the number-one cause of "why is my bill double?" calls, and it's manageable: if your income has dropped, the payments can be reduced with a claim.

HMRC receives data directly from online platforms about sellers' income. If a side hustle has grown past the £1,000 trading allowance, coming forward first is always cheaper than being written to — penalties scale with how the disclosure starts.