Small Business Accountants for Limited Companies
Small Business Accountants for Limited Companies and Sole Traders
Most small business accountants tell you what already happened. Your accounts arrive eleven months after the year end, long after the decisions that could have saved you money. Merit works the other way round. We are accountants for limited companies, sole traders and partnerships, and a Chartered Tax Adviser reviews your position first. So what should a limited company accountant actually do for the fee you pay?
We act for owner managed businesses from around £50,000 of turnover upwards: limited companies, sole traders, partnerships, and directors with rental income alongside the business.
James Sheard FCA, one of our partners, has a particular interest in family businesses and the self-employed. You can see what this has saved clients in our owner-managed business tax case studies.
Wondering what this should cost? Our plain guide to how much an accountant costs in the UK sets out typical market ranges and how our fixed monthly fees work.
What does a small business accountant actually do for you?
Our small business accounting services run in two rhythms. Month to month keeps you compliant. Year to year is where the planning happens.
Month to month: bookkeeping (ours, or a review of yours), VAT returns under Making Tax Digital, payroll and RTI, pensions, and management accounts showing profit and tax while the year is still running.
Year to year:
- Year end accounts filed at Companies House.
- Corporation Tax computation and CT600.
- Confirmation Statement and statutory registers.
- P11Ds, and personal tax returns for the directors.
- Unlimited advice by phone and email, not billed in six minute units.
Do I need an accountant for my limited company?
Legally, no. A director can file everything personally. The question is whether you can afford the mistakes.
File accounts a day late and Companies House charges £150. More than six months late is £1,500, doubled if you were late the year before. Those are the cheap errors. The expensive ones are quiet: nobody tells you that you took your money out the wrong way.
Company accounts and Corporation Tax: what is due, and when?
The annual cycle, using a 31 March 2026 year end as the example.
| What is due | Deadline | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Annual accounts to Companies House | 9 months after year end | 31 December 2026 |
| First accounts after incorporation | 21 months after you registered | Formed 10 June 2025: 10 March 2027 |
| Corporation Tax payment | 9 months and 1 day after year end | 1 January 2027 |
| Company Tax Return (CT600) | 12 months after year end | 31 March 2027 |
| Confirmation Statement | Every 12 months, within 14 days of the review period ending | Set by your incorporation date |
| VAT return and payment | 1 month and 7 days after each quarter | Quarter to 31 March 2026: 7 May 2026 |
| Payroll RTI Full Payment Submission | On or before every payday | PAYE and NIC due by the 22nd of the next month |
| P11D for benefits in kind | 6 July after the tax year ends | 2026/27: 6 July 2027 |
| Director’s Self Assessment and payment | 31 January after the tax year ends | 2026/27: 31 January 2028 |
What should you pay for a small business accountant?
We publish no price list, because the same words describe very different amounts of work. Five things move the number:
- Transaction volume. Forty bank lines a month and four hundred are not the same job.
- VAT registered or not. VAT adds four filings a year plus the review behind each.
- Payroll headcount, and whether you have pensions, benefits and leavers.
- Number of entities. Two companies and a holding company means three sets of accounts and an associated companies problem.
- Quality of records. A clean cloud ledger costs less than a carrier bag of receipts.
As fixed fee accountants we quote in advance, in writing, after seeing your last accounts and your bookkeeping. The fee does not move because you rang us.
A cheap headline price buys compliance only. Questions become chargeable extras, bookkeeping corrections arrive as a year end invoice, and nobody reviews how you take profit out. The example below is worth £4,669 to one director in one year.
How did April 2026 change your salary and dividends?
Dividend rates rose on 6 April 2026: basic rate from 8.75% to 10.75%, higher rate from 33.75% to 35.75%. The additional rate stayed at 39.35% and the dividend allowance at £500.
Small salary plus dividends still wins. The gap narrowed, so getting the split right is worth more.
| How you pay yourself | Tax and NIC paid | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| Salary £12,570 plus dividends of £37,498 | £13,909 (employer NIC £1,136, Corporation Tax £8,796, dividend tax £3,977) | £46,091 |
| Salary £50,270 plus dividends of £2,380 | £18,578 (employer NIC £6,791, Corporation Tax £559, income tax £7,540, employee NIC £3,016, dividend tax £672) | £41,422 |
Identical profit, £4,669 difference. The April 2026 rise cost this director about £740 more in dividend tax than in 2025/26.
Add a second shareholder, a spouse on the payroll or an employer pension contribution and the answer moves again. That is the review a Chartered Tax Adviser runs each year.
One that gets missed. The £6 a week homeworking allowance is £312 a year and most directors stop there. Your company cannot deduct a share of your household costs directly, because those costs are yours rather than the company’s, but a licence agreement between you and the company gets to the same place: the company pays rent set at the costs properly attributable to the room in use, deducts it in full, and you declare the rent and deduct the same costs against it, so there is nothing to pay personally. On a typical home office that turns £312 into something nearer £1,800 of company deduction. Mortgage interest stays out of the calculation, because it only attracts basic rate relief on a property business and would leave you with tax to pay. And the room should not be used exclusively for business, which would restrict private residence relief when you sell and can trigger business rates.
How much Corporation Tax will your company pay?
19% up to £50,000 of profit. 25% above £250,000. Between the two, marginal relief taxes the middle band at an effective 26.5%, so each extra £1,000 of profit there costs £265.
The trap for owner managers: both limits are divided by the number of associated companies you control.
Does Making Tax Digital for Income Tax affect you?
It is already live. From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 must keep digital records and send quarterly updates, due 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028.
Qualifying income is gross turnover plus gross rents, before expenses. A director with £35,000 of rent and £20,000 of freelance work is already over £50,000, even though the company is separate.
What changes as you grow?
Three illustrative examples, not real clients.
How do you switch accountants?
Switching accountants is dull and takes almost none of your time.
- You sign our engagement letter, and we request authorisation from HMRC to act for you, which you approve online or with a code sent to you in the post.
- We write for professional clearance and your records. We draft the letter, so you never have the awkward conversation.
- They hand over the trial balance, tax computations, capital allowances pools and payroll data.
- We review the last two years for anything missed, including overpaid tax still in date to reclaim.
You do not need to wait for your year end. Mid year is often better, because this year’s outcome can still be changed. Most handovers take two to four weeks.
Why do small business owners choose Merit?
- Chartered Tax Adviser led. Dual qualified, Chartered Certified Accountants and Chartered Tax Advisers, the highest tax qualification in the UK. For a small business that matters more than it does for a large one, because a large company has a finance director asking the tax questions and you do not. In most cases, the tax we save our clients exceeds the fee they pay.
- Worked inside HMRC. Our team includes professionals who have worked inside HMRC, so we know how enquiries start and where Inspectors push.
- Commercial partners, not textbook accountants. Our partners have built their own businesses from nothing to over £1m in turnover.
- Fixed fees agreed up front, unlimited advice included, no hourly rates. Ad hoc questions during the year are included, because charging for phone calls stops clients ringing, and clients who do not ring are the ones who get caught out.
- We work with the main cloud platforms, including Xero, QuickBooks, Sage and FreeAgent, so you keep the software you know.
- Three UK offices, in Manchester, London and Hertfordshire, free first meeting.
Questions small business owners ask us
Are you an online accountant, or do I have to come into an office?
Both work. Like most online accountants UK wide, we run everything digitally: cloud bookkeeping, electronic signatures and video calls. Unlike a purely online firm, we have three offices you can sit in and a named person who knows your business.
What is included in your monthly accountancy packages?
Typically bookkeeping, VAT returns, payroll, year end accounts, the Corporation Tax return, your Confirmation Statement and directors’ personal tax returns, spread over twelve payments. Management accounts and advisory work are added where needed. Scope is set out in your engagement letter, so you see what you are buying.
Do you work with sole traders as well as limited companies?
Yes. As accountants for sole traders and partnerships we handle accounts, Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital quarterly updates. We will also tell you honestly whether incorporating is worth it. At lower profits the saving is often too small to justify the extra filing and admin.
My bookkeeping is a mess. Will you still take me on?
Yes, and tell us before we quote rather than after. Poor records are the biggest cause of fee surprises at other firms. We price the catch up work separately and once, then move you onto a clean monthly process so the backlog cannot rebuild.
How long does switching accountants take, and will HMRC mind?
Usually two to four weeks, and there is no penalty for changing agent. You do not need to wait for a year end or a filing deadline. We request professional clearance, register as your agent with HMRC and check the opening figures. The usual hold up is an unpaid bill.
What happens if HMRC opens an enquiry into my company?
We handle it: the correspondence, the information requests and any meeting. You get a realistic view of the exposure early rather than after the event. Having professionals who have worked inside HMRC read the opening letter changes how an enquiry runs.
Do you charge extra for phone calls and emails?
No. Unlimited advice sits inside the fixed fee, for a simple reason: accountants who bill by the minute teach clients to stop asking. The conversations that save money happen before you buy the van or set up the second company.
When do I need management accounts, not just year end accounts?
Once you have staff, stock or a lender, or once profits are large enough that Corporation Tax planning matters. Year end accounts tell you what your tax bill already is. Management accounts tell you what it will be while you can still change it.
Ready to find out what your position is really costing you?
Bring your last accounts, your bookkeeping and a rough idea of how you take money out. In one meeting we will tell you whether your returns are right, whether your profit extraction is costing money, and what a fixed fee for the whole job looks like.
No charge, no obligation, no jargon.
Last reviewed: August 2026.