The full annual cycle.
Eight service lines covering everything a UK business needs across a trading year, from incorporation through annual filings to exit. One named accountant, fixed fee, plain English.
What the work covers
Eight service lines, one engagement
Year-end accounts & corporation tax
Statutory accounts to FRS 102 / FRS 105, CT600 filings, marginal relief modelling between £50,000 and £250,000, group relief where it applies. Filed accurately, filed on time.
Statutory annual accounts · Corporation tax computation and CT600 · Marginal relief planning · Companies House filings
Director pay and tax planning
Optimal salary-and-dividend split for each director’s personal tax position, modelled annually and recalibrated when thresholds move. Pension contributions, BIK strategy, P11D where relevant.
Salary vs dividend optimisation · Director SIPP contributions · Self assessment for directors · Tax-efficient extraction planning
VAT and Making Tax Digital
Registration timing against the £90,000 threshold, scheme selection (Standard, Flat Rate, Cash, Annual), partial-exemption handling, quarterly returns, MTD-compliant software setup.
VAT registration and scheme review · Quarterly returns (MTD) · Partial exemption and reverse-charge · EORI and import VAT where relevant
Payroll, PAYE and pensions
Monthly payroll runs, RTI submissions, Employment Allowance claims (up to £10,500), salary-sacrifice schemes, workplace pension administration and auto-enrolment.
Monthly payroll and payslips · RTI and FPS submissions · P60s and P11Ds · Auto-enrolment compliance
R&D tax credits
Merged-scheme claims under the post-April-2024 regime, qualifying-activity narrative written by qualified staff, costs eligibility review, ERIS where the loss-making intensive route applies.
Eligibility and scope assessment · Technical narrative drafting · Cost identification and apportionment · Defence in the event of enquiry
Incorporation and structure
When to move from sole trader to Ltd, the real cost of incorporation (SDLT, CGT where property is involved), holding-company design, alphabet shares, group restructures.
Sole-trader-to-Ltd modelling · Holding-company design · Share class engineering · Group restructuring
Self assessment and partnership returns
SA100 for sole traders, partners and Ltd directors. Partnership SA800 returns. Capital gains where they arise. Making Tax Digital for ITSA from April 2026 onwards.
SA100 self assessment · SA800 partnership returns · Capital gains reporting · MTD ITSA readiness
Exit and capital gains planning
Business Asset Disposal Relief (14% in 2025/26, 18% from 6 April 2026, £1M lifetime), holding-period management, share buy-back vs liquidation, earn-out structuring.
BADR eligibility and timing · CGT modelling on disposal · Share buy-backs and liquidation · Earn-out structure review
Model it before you ask us
One free calculator per service line, on 2026/27 rates. No sign-up.
How we can help
From self-serve tools to a full annual engagement.
Use our free tools to model your own numbers. No sign-up, no email gate. Good for business owners who are comfortable with the maths and just need reliable 2026/27 figures.
- ✓21 free tax calculators:
- ✓Salary vs dividend optimiser
- ✓Take-home pay calculator
- ✓Employer NI cost tool
- ✓VAT scheme comparator
- ✓BADR and CGT calculator
- ✓378 plain-English guides covering every UK trading structure
A short call to review your numbers, sense-check a decision, or answer a specific question. Fixed fee, no ongoing commitment.
- ✓One named accountant on the call
- ✓Structured vs unincorporated comparison
- ✓Director pay and dividend split review
- ✓VAT scheme and threshold check
- ✓R and D credit eligibility assessment
- ✓Written summary of what was covered
Full year-round engagement. We handle every filing, answer questions as they arise, and plan your tax position before each year-end. One fixed fee, agreed up front.
- ✓Year-end accounts and CT600 corporation tax
- ✓VAT returns and Making Tax Digital
- ✓Monthly payroll and RTI submissions
- ✓Director self assessment
- ✓Ad-hoc questions with no hourly clock
- ✓Annual planning conversation before year-end
- ✓One named accountant throughout
What’s in every engagement
The same four things, whichever lines you take
- Fixed fees. Quoted in writing before engagement starts. No hourly billing on questions; no year-end surprises.
- Named accountant. One accountant on the engagement, consistent throughout. No call-centre routing.
- Cloud-first. Xero, FreeAgent or QuickBooks depending on what you use. We meet your stack, not the other way round.
- 24-hour reply. Questions answered within one working day, usually same day. Office hours, not a 9-to-5 portal.
How it starts
From first call to the first year end
The same sequence whether you are incorporating this month or moving a ten-year-old company across. If you are looking for someone nearby, the accountant near me page explains how the remote engagement works, and our locations lists the towns and cities we already work in.
- 01
Introductory call
A short call to understand the business as it actually runs: structure, turnover, VAT position, whether there is payroll, and who takes money out and how. Nothing to prepare and no documents needed at this stage.
- 02
Scope and a clear quote
We set out which service lines you need, what each one covers over the year, and what it costs. You get that in writing before anything starts, and nothing begins until you have agreed it.
- 03
Engagement, identity checks and authorisation
Signed engagement letter, anti-money-laundering identity checks, HMRC agent authorisation for each tax we are taking on, and professional clearance from your outgoing accountant if you have one.
- 04
Records handover and software
We take over your Xero, FreeAgent or QuickBooks file, or set one up, agree the chart of accounts, reconcile the opening balances against the last filed accounts, and confirm every filing date already in the diary.
- 05
The trading year
VAT returns on the quarter, payroll and RTI on the payroll dates, and questions answered as they come up rather than banked until year end. Decisions get made while they can still change the outcome.
- 06
Year end, then the planning conversation
Statutory accounts, the corporation tax computation and the personal returns that go with them. Before the next year closes we go back over pay, pension and timing while there is still time to act on it.
Read before you decide
The detail behind the service lines
Before you engage
Questions we get asked first
You must register when your taxable turnover exceeds £90,000 in any rolling 12-month period, or when you expect to exceed £90,000 in the next 30 days on its own. It is a rolling test, not a test on your accounting year, which is why businesses miss it. You can also register voluntarily below the threshold to reclaim input VAT, and the deregistration threshold is £88,000.
It depends on profit level, how much you need to draw, and what you want the business to look like in a few years. A company pays corporation tax at 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% above £250,000, with marginal relief tapering the rate between the two, while a sole trader pays income tax and Class 4 National Insurance on the whole profit. Incorporation also brings filing obligations and, where property or goodwill moves across, its own tax cost. We model both on your actual figures rather than a rule of thumb.
Qualifying income above £50,000 brings you in from 6 April 2026, above £30,000 from 6 April 2027, and above £20,000 from 6 April 2028. The test looks at your gross self-employment and property income on an earlier year's return, so the year you are assessed on has usually already been filed by the time you are told.
Register by 5 October following the end of your first tax year of trading. A paper return is due by 31 October and an online return by 31 January, with the balancing payment due on the same 31 January date. Payments on account, where they apply, fall on 31 January and 31 July, which is why a first full year often lands as a larger bill than people expect.
Normally a mix of salary and dividends, set once a year and revisited when thresholds move. For 2026/27 the dividend allowance is £500 and dividends are taxed at 10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35% across the ordinary, upper and additional rates, on top of the corporation tax the company has already paid on the same profit. Pension contributions made by the company are often the part that gets left on the table.
Yes, and there is a set process for it. We write to your current accountant for professional clearance and the handover records, take fresh HMRC agent authorisation for each tax, and reconcile the opening balances against the last set of filed accounts so nothing carries over unchecked. You do not need to wait for a year end.
Claims for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024 go through the merged scheme, with the enhanced support route (ERIS) available to loss-making, R&D-intensive companies. The work is in the evidence rather than the arithmetic: the qualifying activity has to be described against the technological uncertainty it resolved, and it has to survive an enquiry.
The structure, roughly what the business turns over, whether you are VAT registered, whether you run payroll and for how many people, and which software the records sit in. That is enough for a clear quote. Anything unusual, such as a group, a property held in the company or an overseas element, we will ask about on the call.
Free consultation
A short call. A clear quote. No follow-up sequence.
Tell us where the business sits today and which service lines you need. We come back with a fixed-fee quote and a short note on what the engagement would look like. No pitch deck, no obligation.
- 24-hour response, usually same dayYou hear back from a person, not an autoresponder
- Fixed fees, agreed before any workIn writing, before anything starts
- One named accountant, not a team inboxThe same person every time you call
One named accountant will reply within one working day.