Accounting Services For Limited Company Contractors
We offer two accounting services tailored to suit the needs of professional contractors working in the UK who want to ensure they operate in the most cost effective way.
Sign up
We will incorporate your limited company and set you up on our online system. If you already have a limited company, we will ensure it is correctly registered.
Open a bank account
Our partners at Tide can arrange 12 months free banking for you, or we can arrange your appointment with HSBC or Metrobank to help you open a business bank account quickly and smoothly. Of course any other bank will work fine too.
Get working
Our setup is quick and easy so that you can start contracting right away. And don’t forget our great referral discount!
Service #2
For those who like to save some money and do some things themselves.- Our basic service
- Live Profit and Loss account
- Track your personal tax position
- Meets all statutory reporting
- Annual auditing of expenses & invoices
- VAT registration/reporting available
Service #1
Our most popular- Our most comprehensive service
- Meets all statutory reporting
- Live Profit and Loss account
- Accounts reconciled monthly
- Track your personal tax position
- Regular auditing of expenses & invoices
- Monitor personal tax thresholds
- Off payroll income processing (for work that is caught by IR35)
- VAT registration/reporting available
| Services at a Glance | Service 2 | Service 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Free limited company formation (subject to our our fair use T&C's) | ||
| Monthly RTI filing with the HMRC for your payroll ** | ||
| Use our acclaimed cloud-based accounting software - we made it ourselves 🙂 | ||
| Unlimited phone and email support for all accounting/tax matters | ||
| Unlimited face-to-face meetings | ||
| We are your registered office with Companies Houuse | ||
| Dealing with general HMRC and Companies House enquiries | ||
| LIVE Profit & Loss straight from your homepage | ||
| Completion of year end accounts and company tax returns | ||
| Administration/submission of all PAYE returns to the HMRC | ||
| Enjoy access to our Knowledge Base | ||
| Plus loads of other things like address changes with Companies House, mortgage & tenancy references, completion of National Statistical Office questionnaires. | ||
| Monthly bookkeeping work by us | ||
| Personal earnings updated/confirmed by us to help you monitor personal tax thresholds | ||
| All transactions reconciled by us at least every quarter (usually monthly) |
Getting The Most From Our Service
Switching to us
If you are not completely satisfied with your current accountant, we would welcome the chance to impress you with our service. You will be assigned your own accountant, who will run your company through our own health check system, to understand any quirks and issues you may have. They will also be able to answer any questions. We do not charge a fee for switching your company accounting work across to our service. However, if your company year-end falls within 3 months of you moving to our service, there may be a one-off fee for us to complete your annual accounts and corporation tax return. We will always advise you of any additional fees before progressing.
Accounting fee holiday
We recognise that there is the possibility of extended periods between contracts, or that some contractors like to plan extended holidays after finishing long or exhausting contracts. For this reason, for every full month you are not contracting, we will discount our monthly accounting fee by 50%.
Please note, to take advantage of this fee holiday you need to make sure you inform us before these periods commence. For example, a non-trading period of between 2 to 2.9 months will entitle you to a 50% discount for 2 months.
We will of course continue to monitor your account to ensure all statutory filing/payment deadlines are met.
Referral discounts
We offer a 10% discount on our rates for each new customer you refer to our accounting service. This discount applies from the first month that we receive a full monthly fee to the last month we receive a full monthly fee from your referral.
This is a great way to get even better value from our accounting service, if you refer ten or more clients to us you pay us nothing. We have found this referral incentive scheme to be extremely popular with our clients with a significant number enjoying a 10-20% discount off our standard monthly charges.
Closing down your company
If you decide to leave contracting and want to close down your limited company, we can take care of the entire process for £175 (+VAT). We will prepare all the required documents and forms including your final trading accounts, your final corporation tax return, PAYE return, and applying to have your company struck off the register at Companies House. Please note if you are closing down your company our monthly accounting fee stops in the last month that your company trades. Regardless of the number of days you trade in the last month, the final monthly fee is payable for that month in full.
The finer points about our fees
We’re not in the habit of hiding fees or adding small print to our service. Here are the additional costs you need to know about.
Company formation
£FREE. However, please check our T&C’s here as a couple of very reasonable conditions apply.
VAT registration and administration
We don’t offer this as standard for our clients, but all you need to do is ask to be VAT registered 🙂 The costs related to VAT registration and administration are included in your Service #1 monthly accounting fee.
Service #2 clients only
If you have made mistakes with recording/reconciling your company financial transactions and require our assistance to rectify this, or require us to reconcile your account for other reasons, an additional fee of £50 + VAT will apply for every calendar month of transactions that we remedy.
Fee for additional working Directors
If there is more than one actively trading Director through the same limited company, there will be an additional fee due. This additional fee will be 40% off our normal full monthly fee rate, and applies while there is one working Director paying a full monthly fee (and if this Director is no longer due to pay us a full monthly fee, the 40% discount is removed to ensure there is always at least one Director paying our normal full monthly fee). Both parties can get a referral discount for referring a friend, and it will be the same, based on the full monthly fee due. Remember, the more friends you refer to our services, the cheaper your accounting fee will be!
** Payroll fee for additional employees
Where there is more than one additional employee in the limited company, we charge £15 + VAT, per additional employee to run the monthly payroll.
Personal self-assessment tax return
£FREE so long as (a) we receive all of the information we need by 31 October following the end of the tax year, (b) You are a FULL fee paying Director of your company as at 31 Mar of the tax year.
If your personal income also includes sole trader/partnership income, non-domicile related income, or rental property income, an additional charge of £75 + VAT is payable. If we do not receive all the information we require before 31 October, an additional fee of £50 + VAT will be payable. In addition to these fees, if you sign up for our personal tax return service after 31 Dec of the following tax year, our January surcharge fee of £75 + VAT will also apply.
If you are not a client as at 31 March of the tax year in question, a base fee (before any additional fees mentioned above) of £95 + VAT will apply.
Switching to our Accounting service
£FREE, provided your accounts are up to date. If they are not, and we need to complete some work for you to get you up to speed, we’ll provide you with an absolutely free quotation on how much this will cost. Costs vary, but we love getting new customers, so we avoid charging where possible. Please note: while we do not expect any fees for switching over to our services, the first monthly fee is due on your transfer date, and we will not start processing your information before this fee is paid.
Closing down your company
As an existing client we charge a one-off fee of £175 + VAT (plus a further one-off £10 charge is payable to Companies House when we apply to close down your company).
Non-trading
If your limited company stops trading (and you want to keep it) we will continue to provide our usual accounting services at a discounted rate of 50% off. If you decide to resume working again through your company again, then our monthly fee reverts to the usual full rate.
Confirmation Statement
Companies House charge of £13 (no VAT) – this fee is required by Companies House when submitting your CS. We make the payment on your behalf when we file your CS, but you will need to reimburse us the £13.
IR35 - What you need to know
Every contractor using a ltd company needs to know about IR35. This legislation is designed to prevent contractors hiding in permanent employment, but getting the tax benefits of using a ltd company structure.
What its about
“IR35” is a piece of tax legislation announced in 1999, which took effect from April 2000. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) intention was to tackle tax and National Insurance (NIC) avoidance schemes through the use of intermediaries, such as a Limited Company. We can explain the general concepts to you, and help you decide what kind of risk IR35 poses to you and your business. If you want a more in-depth look at your IR35 status we will help put you in touch with IR35 specialists. Because this is an area of employment law (and not accounting or tax) we suggest your IR35 status is handled by experts.
Help your IR35 position
Get the right contract
If you are using an agency it is likely they will have an ‘IR35 friendly’ contract. Ensure they use this for the provision of your company’s contracted services. Note, however, while an important factor, the right contract alone will not ensure you are free of IR35. The onus is on you, the contractor, and not the agency to ensure you are on an ‘IR35 friendly’ contract.
Work right
Large companies contracting small companies to provide specialist knowledge or manpower resource is a way of life in the business world. These ‘specialists’ are usually a separate, unrelated entity, brought in for a specific role or task. Your limited company is no different, and should be treated as such. This means you don’t get a door with your name on it, you don’t enjoy employee benefits, and you can exercise the choice to accept or decline further work with your client. Working within this frame of reference ensures you minimise the risk of being labeled a ‘disguised employee’, and thereby avoid falling foul of IR35. Indicators that you are in business of your own accord:
Advertise your Business
Advertising your business services shows you are committed to being in business. It does not have to be expensive, and where you choose to advertise depends on what market your business serves. Whilst free advertising is a good start the Inland Revenue are unlikely to consider it a factor if you do not actually spend anything on advertising.
Training
Training is an excellent way of ensuring the services your company offers is up to date and ready to meet the needs of your clients. This need not only be in your own field of expertise, but also other areas that expand your skills, and allow you to expand your offering to your clients. Keep a record of any training you do.
Company web site
Similar to advertising, having a company web site is helpful in showing you are in business of your own accord. It helps show you have put some thought into your business and are actively seeking additional clients.
Company stationery
Company letterheads, business cards, and invoices all make your company look professional and show you are serious about being in business.
Your home office
Having a designated home office is very useful – preferably a room set aside with desk, chair, PC, printer, internet, filing cabinet etc – things you would expect to see in any modern office. An additional benefit of the home office is claiming a proportion of associated costs such as rent, council tax, heating/lighting bills etc as business-related expenses so long as the office is used for fee earning work.
Others indicators
Insurances, such as professional indemnity, employers insurance (no longer compulsory for single Director Companies), public liability insurance, registration for VAT. Included in your monthly fee with CCA is the preparation of VAT returns, if you decide, or your company turnover requires you to become VAT registered. CCA does not provide any insurance products, and we cannot recommend any as we are not regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). However there are a few insurance providers that we know provide packages specifically to the contracting market. If you would like to know more concerning this, please give us a call or send us an email. As always, we will be happy to answer your questions.