Every question we get asked,
answered properly

Most UK small businesses pay between £30 and £200 per month depending on their structure and needs. At Claritax, fees are fixed and agreed in writing before we start: sole trader plans from £35 per month and complete limited company packages from £95 per month. See exactly what each plan includes on our pricing page.

Legally, no. Practically, most business owners save more in tax and penalties avoided than the accountant costs, and they get their evenings back. The case is strongest for limited companies, VAT-registered businesses and anyone employing staff, where filing mistakes carry real penalties.

The core cycle is: year-end statutory accounts filed at Companies House, a corporation tax return (CT600) filed with HMRC, the confirmation statement, director payroll, and the director's personal self assessment. A good accountant also plans your salary and dividend mix and flags tax savings before deadlines arrive. Full details on our limited company accounts page.

You sign one authority letter and your new accountant does everything else: professional clearance, collecting your records, and registering with HMRC as your agent. A typical switch completes inside two weeks and there is no bad time of year to do it. We explain the whole process on our switching accountants page.

Almost never. Professional clearance is a routine courtesy process between firms and accountants handle it constantly. You never need to have the awkward conversation yourself; your new accountant contacts them for you.

Four things: a recognised qualification or regulated firm, fixed fees agreed in writing, a clear response-time promise, and proactive advice rather than a once-a-year filing service. Ask any prospective accountant when they last contacted a client with a tax-saving idea the client had not asked about.

For most small businesses, yes, and often better: cloud bookkeeping means your accountant sees live numbers rather than a year-old shoebox, and remote firms typically respond faster because they are built around it. We serve clients everywhere from London to Birmingham without a single office visit.

For most one-director companies it is a small salary (typically at or near the £12,570 personal allowance) topped up with dividends, reviewed each tax year as thresholds change. The right split depends on your income and circumstances. Our guide to paying yourself tax-efficiently covers the detail, and our salary and dividend calculator shows your numbers instantly.

Corporation tax on profits at 19% up to £50,000 of profit, rising on a sliding scale to 25% at £250,000 and above, see our corporation tax calculator for your own figure. On top of that, the company handles VAT if registered and employer National Insurance if it runs a payroll. Directors then pay personal tax on what they draw out as salary and dividends.

Companies House accounts are due 9 months after your financial year-end, corporation tax payment 9 months and 1 day after year-end, and the CT600 return 12 months after year-end. A brand-new company's first accounts are due 21 months after incorporation, which arrives faster than most founders expect. Key dates are listed in our deadlines guide.

An annual snapshot filing that confirms your company's registered details (directors, shareholders, registered office) with Companies House. It is due within 14 days of your review period ending each year. It is a small filing, but missing it can ultimately lead to your company being struck off.

Any money you take from the company that is not salary, dividend or expense repayment sits on your director's loan account. If you owe the company more than £10,000 at any point, or the loan is unpaid 9 months after year-end, tax charges apply for you and the company. Tracked properly it is a useful tool; untracked it is one of the most common problems we untangle.

Costs incurred wholly and exclusively for the business: software, equipment, travel (not ordinary commuting), a home-office allowance, professional fees, pension contributions and more. Claiming properly reduces corporation tax at up to 25%, so a thorough expense review usually pays for itself.

If you might trade again, dormancy keeps the company alive with minimal filings. If you are done for good, a formal closure (strike-off, or a members' voluntary liquidation for companies with significant retained cash) is usually better and can be very tax-efficient. The right route depends on how much is left in the company, so take advice before acting.

You generally must file if you are self-employed earning over £1,000, receive rental income, have significant untaxed income (dividends, crypto gains, side income), earn over £150,000, or HMRC has asked you to. First-timer? Our first self assessment page walks through the whole process.

Online returns and payment are due by 31 January following the end of the tax year; paper returns by the earlier date of 31 October. You must also register with HMRC by 5 October after your first tax year of untaxed income. All the dates are in our deadline dates guide.

Once your self assessment bill exceeds £1,000, HMRC asks you to prepay half of next year's estimated tax twice a year, on 31 January and 31 July. It surprises almost every first-time filer because the first January bill is effectively 150% of what they expected, our payments on account forecaster shows the split on your own numbers. A good accountant forecasts it months in advance.

An instant £100 penalty the day after the deadline, even if you owe no tax. After 3 months, £10 daily penalties begin (up to £900), and at 6 and 12 months a further 5% of the tax or £300, whichever is higher, each time. Our late filing penalty calculator shows what you owe so far and what filing today saves. If you are already behind, our catch-up service stops the escalation.

Costs that are wholly and exclusively for the business: materials, travel, phone and internet (business share), professional fees, marketing, and either simplified flat-rate home-working expenses or a share of actual household costs. Alternatively, the £1,000 trading allowance can replace expense claims for very small incomes.

Register online with HMRC by 5 October following the end of the tax year in which your untaxed income started; HMRC then issues your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR). We handle registration for clients as standard, including chasing the UTR when HMRC is slow.

Registration is mandatory once your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling 12-month period, not your accounting year. You must also register if you expect to pass it within the next 30 days alone. Our plain-English VAT registration guide covers the details and edge cases.

Sometimes. If your customers are mainly VAT-registered businesses, voluntary registration lets you reclaim VAT on costs without making your prices effectively higher to customers. If you sell mainly to the public, it usually means either raising prices or absorbing the VAT. It is a genuine trade-off worth modelling before deciding.

The standard scheme suits businesses with significant VATable costs; the flat rate scheme can win for service businesses with few costs; cash accounting helps if customers pay slowly. The best choice depends on your cost profile and we review it as part of our VAT returns service.

HMRC's requirement to keep digital records and file through compatible software rather than typing figures into the HMRC website. It already applies to VAT and is being extended to income tax for landlords and the self-employed. Cloud bookkeeping platforms like Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent handle it automatically.

Usually not for services supplied to businesses outside the UK, and the rules for goods depend on where they are shipped and who handles import VAT. Cross-border VAT is one of the most error-prone areas in tax, especially for e-commerce sellers, so get specific advice for your setup. See how we help online sellers.

Yes, once you can show HMRC your taxable turnover will stay below the £88,000 deregistration threshold over the next 12 months. Whether you should depends on your customers and costs; deregistering means you stop reclaiming VAT on purchases too.

Budget roughly 12% to 18% on top of gross salary. The main additions are employer National Insurance at 15% on earnings above £5,000 per year and a minimum 3% employer pension contribution for eligible staff, plus holiday cover, equipment and software, our employee cost calculator works out the full figure for a given salary. The Employment Allowance can offset up to £10,500 of employer NI for qualifying businesses.

If you pay yourself any salary, yes: the company needs a PAYE scheme and must report each payment to HMRC in real time, even for one person. Most directors run a simple annual or monthly scheme; it is quick when set up properly and included in our payroll service.

The legal duty to enrol eligible employees (aged 22 to State Pension age, earning over £10,000) into a workplace pension, with minimum contributions of 8% of qualifying earnings, at least 3% from the employer. Duties start the day your first employee starts, and there are fines for missing them.

Real Time Information: the requirement to report pay and deductions to HMRC on or before every payday, not at year-end. It is the reason payroll needs to run on time every single period, and it is handled automatically by proper payroll software.

Yes, provided the pay is genuinely for work performed and at a commercially justifiable rate. Done properly it can use a family member's personal allowance and lower tax bands. Done as a paper exercise with no real work, it is a classic HMRC challenge, so keep evidence of the role.

Yes. Rental profit (rent minus allowable expenses) is added to your other income and taxed at your marginal rate through self assessment. Allowable costs include letting agent fees, repairs, insurance and most running costs, but mortgage interest is treated separately. Our landlord accounting page covers the full picture.

Since 2020, individual landlords cannot deduct mortgage interest from rental profit; instead they receive a flat 20% basic-rate tax credit on the interest. For higher-rate taxpayers with mortgaged properties this raised effective tax bills significantly, and it is the main reason company ownership gets discussed so much.

Residential property gains are taxed at 18% within your basic rate band and 24% above it, after the £3,000 annual exempt amount, our property capital gains tax calculator works this out on your own numbers. Crucially, the sale must be reported and the tax paid within 60 days of completion, a deadline many sellers only discover after missing it.

Sometimes, but far less often than the internet suggests. Companies deduct mortgage interest in full and pay corporation tax rates, but moving existing personally-held properties in triggers stamp duty and possibly capital gains tax, and company mortgages cost more. It tends to suit higher-rate taxpayers building a portfolio with new purchases. Model the actual numbers before deciding.

Come forward voluntarily through HMRC's Let Property Campaign, which offers significantly better terms than waiting to be found (and HMRC does find landlords, via letting agents, deposit schemes and Land Registry data). We prepare the disclosure and negotiate the position for you, without judgement.

Fixed monthly fees agreed in writing before any work starts: sole traders from £35 per month, one-director limited companies from £95, and growing businesses with VAT and staff from £225. Calls, emails and questions are always included, never billed. Full details on the pricing page.

Yes. Claritax Accountants is a CIPFA registered firm and HMRC-recognised as agents. Our credentials are listed on the about page.

Same working day, guaranteed, for every client query however small. It is the single most common reason clients tell us they switched from their previous accountant.

No. Everything happens by video call, phone and a secure document portal, at times that suit you. We work with businesses across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland entirely remotely.

Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent, plus the connector tools that bring in marketplace and bank data cleanly. If you are not on cloud software yet, we set it up as part of onboarding and show you the two or three things you actually need to touch.

Book a free, no-obligation call on our contact page. We learn about your business, answer your questions, and send a fixed written quote within 24 hours. If you go ahead, onboarding (including switching from a previous accountant) is free.