Accounts Preparation
Accounts Preparation: UK Limited Companies, Partnerships & Sole Traders
Your annual statutory accounts are a legal requirement, but in the hands of a proactive accountant, they are also a powerful planning tool. At Merit Accountants, every set of accounts we prepare is accompanied by a review of your tax position, a discussion of what your numbers tell us, and recommendations for the year ahead.
We prepare accounts for limited companies (to FRS 102 and FRS 105 micro-entity standards), partnerships, sole traders, LLPs, and charities. Our accounts are filed accurately and on time at Companies House and HMRC, with no surprise penalties and no last-minute rushes.
What Our Accounts Preparation Service Includes
Our accounts preparation service goes well beyond producing a set of compliant financial statements.
✓ Statutory Accounts to UK Standards
Prepared to FRS 102 (small companies) or FRS 105 (micro-entities) as appropriate, covering the Profit and Loss Account, Balance Sheet, notes to the accounts, and Directors’ Report where required.
✓ Companies House Filing
We file your accounts at Companies House within the required deadline, nine months from your financial year-end for private limited companies, and confirm receipt.
✓ HMRC Corporation Tax Return (CT600)
Your accounts and CT600 are filed together as a coordinated process, ensuring consistency between the two filings. This is included as standard in our accounts preparation service.
✓ Pre-Year-End Tax Planning Meeting
Before we close your accounts, we conduct a pre-year-end review to identify any last actions that can reduce your tax liability for the year being finalised. This meeting alone frequently saves clients more than the entire cost of their annual accountancy fee.
✓ Post-Accounts Advisory Debrief
Once your accounts are complete, we present the results to you in plain language, explaining what the numbers mean for your business, identifying trends, and making recommendations for the year ahead.
The Pre-Year-End Planning Meeting - Why It Matters
Most accountants produce your accounts after the year has ended, at which point every opportunity to reduce the tax bill has closed. Our approach is different. We engage with your finances before the year-end date, creating a window of opportunity to: make additional pension contributions, time significant purchases or capital expenditure to fall within the closing year, review directors’ loan account balances to avoid Section 455 tax charges, adjust salary and dividend levels to optimise personal tax, and consider any available reliefs that need to be actioned before the year closes.
This is not a theoretical exercise. Our clients regularly save thousands of pounds through actions taken in the weeks before their financial year-end, actions that their previous accountants had never suggested.
Fixed Fee, No Hidden Extras
Our accounts preparation is priced on a transparent, fixed annual fee. You know exactly what you are paying before we start. There are no hourly rates, no scope creep charges, and no additional fees for the pre-year-end meeting or the post-accounts debrief. These are included because they are part of what good accountancy looks like.