Sole trader accountant

Your Unique Taxpayer Reference — the 10-digit number HMRC issues when you register for Self Assessment. Lifelong, and needed for every return.

Advance payments toward next year's tax, due 31 January and 31 July, triggered once your bill passes £1,000. The first year they apply effectively bills 150% at once.

The main Self Assessment return form. Supplementary pages bolt on for employment, self-employment, property, capital gains and foreign income.

The difference between what your payments on account covered and what the year's tax actually was — settled each 31 January.

Matching your books to the bank, transaction by transaction — the discipline that makes every other number trustworthy.

The category structure your transactions are coded into. A generic one makes reports vague; a tailored one makes them useful.

Who owes you and whom you owe, banded by how overdue — the two lists that predict cash flow problems before the bank balance does.

The summaries of income and expenses MTD requires every three months — replacing the single annual return rhythm for mandated taxpayers.

Your sole trader accounts prepared from your records, expenses reviewed and maximised within the rules, your profit calculated correctly, and the Self Assessment return that goes with it filed to HMRC. If your records are a carrier bag, we've seen worse — reconstruction is quoted upfront if needed.

Depends mostly on profit, risk and admin appetite. Very roughly, incorporation starts being worth discussing around £30,000–£40,000 of profit — but liability protection and customer expectations count too. Try our Ltd-vs-sole-trader calculator, or ask us to run your actual numbers for free.

Anything wholly and exclusively for the business: materials, tools, mileage or vehicle costs, phone, insurance, use of home, subscriptions, subcontractors. The commonly missed ones are use-of-home (worth claiming properly, not just the flat rate), pre-trading costs, and training that updates existing skills.

There's no Companies House filing for sole traders, but you must keep records supporting your Self Assessment — and proper accounts almost always save more tax than they cost, because expenses stop slipping through the cracks.

Anything wholly and exclusively for the business: materials, tools, mileage or vehicle costs, phone, insurance, home-office use, software, professional fees and more. Our job is claiming everything legitimate — clients are usually surprised by what they'd been missing.

Preparation and online filing of your full SA100 return, including the supplementary pages your situation needs. If your return is more complex — rental income, capital gains — the packages above show the fixed price, and we confirm it in writing before starting.

Yes. Late returns are common and fixable: we prepare and file the outstanding return quickly, and where there's a reasonable excuse we help you appeal penalties. The sooner it's filed, the sooner the penalties stop growing.

Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent — whichever suits your business (or whichever you already use). Software subscription can be included in your monthly fee, and we handle all the setup and migration.

Each line on your bank statement — a payment in or out. Most one-person businesses sit comfortably under 50 a month. If you drift over your band we'll tell you before the fee changes, never after.

For Income Tax: April 2026 if your combined self-employment and property income is over £50,000; April 2027 for over £30,000. VAT-registered businesses have been in MTD for VAT for years already. The income test uses your most recent filed return — which surprises people whose income fluctuates around the line.

Three things: records must be kept digitally (spreadsheets need bridging software), a summary update goes to HMRC every quarter, and a final declaration replaces the traditional return. Same tax, different rhythm — the risk isn't paying more, it's missing quarterly deadlines that never existed before.