Sole Trader Accounts · Scotland
Sole trader accounts in An t-Ob
Year-end accounts for sole traders in An t-Ob, prepared online from whatever records you have and priced by the state they are in: £149 from tidy records, £249 from a shoebox of receipts. The accounts feed directly into your Self Assessment, and the fee is the same in An t-Ob as in every other part of Scotland.
from £149 · fixed, per year
Next deadlines
- Online Self Assessment filing deadline and balancing payment due
- Tax year ends: last day for pension, ISA and dividend timing decisions
- Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: quarterly updates for sole traders and landlords over £50,000 (from April 2026) and over £30,000 (from April 2027)
- Second payment on account due
Who this is for
Sole Trader Accounts for An t-Ob
Self-employed people in An t-Ob trading in their own name: tradespeople, drivers and couriers, hairdressers and beauticians, consultants, creatives, market traders, therapists, tutors and anyone else running a business without a limited company, from a first-year side business to an established trade with a van, equipment and a few thousand transactions a year.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- Income and expenditure account for the tax year or your accounting period, with a balance sheet where you want one
- Every expense category reviewed for what is allowable, including home working, vehicles and the trading allowance
- Capital allowances on equipment and vehicles, with the cash basis or accruals basis chosen to suit you
- A plain-English summary: profit, tax and National Insurance due, payments on account and what to put aside
- Figures prepared in the format the Self Assessment self-employment pages need
- Records organised and stored so that an HMRC check can be answered quickly
How it works
Sole Trader Accounts from An t-Ob, step by step
Tell us your situation
A short message or call about what you do and what needs filing. We ask the questions that determine the right package and nothing more.
Fixed fee in writing
You receive one price for the work, confirmed by email before anything starts. It does not change if the job takes longer than we expected.
Send records, review the draft
Records come by WhatsApp or email. We prepare the draft, explain the figures in plain English and answer your questions.
We file, you get the receipts
Once you approve and the fee is settled, we submit electronically and forward the HMRC or Companies House acknowledgement the same day.
Why IGI
Why An t-Ob businesses file with IGI
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. An t-Ob clients know the fee for sole trader accounts before they send a single document, and it stays fixed.
We work to the HMRC and Companies House calendar, not an appointment diary. Clients in An t-Ob get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to sole trader accounts.
Online only, UK based. There is no office in An t-Ob to pay for, which is why the fee is the same here as anywhere in Scotland; the work is done by people in the UK who answer the same day.
Continuity matters in sole trader accounts: the person who prepared last year's work for your An t-Ob business prepares this year's, and remembers what was agreed.
Plain English, with the numbers. Every draft for An t-Ob comes with a short explanation of what the figures mean and what, if anything, you should do about them.
You stay in control of sole trader accounts: drafts go to An t-Ob clients first, with the figures explained, and nothing leaves us until you say so.
Local facts
About An t-Ob
An t-Ob is in Scotland, Scotland. Scottish taxpayers pay income tax under six Scottish bands set by the Scottish Parliament, from the 19% starter rate through 20%, 21%, 42% and 45% to the 48% top rate, applied to non-savings income. Dividends and savings are taxed at UK rates, National Insurance and Corporation Tax are UK-wide, and property purchases pay Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.
| Place | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Cairminis | 0.9 mi | SE |
| Carminish | 0.9 mi | SE |
| Srannda | 1 mi | SE |
| Strond | 1 mi | SE |
| Taobh Tuath | 3 mi | NW |
| Rodel | 3 mi | SE |
| Roghadal | 3 mi | SE |
| Lingarabay | 3 mi | E |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Dormant companies
A dormant company is one with no significant accounting transactions in the year, where the only permitted entries are the payment for shares on incorporation, Companies House fees and penalties. It still files a confirmation statement and simplified dormant accounts every year. A bank charge or an accountant's fee paid from the company ends dormancy and requires full accounts.
The trading and property allowances
Not every small income needs a tax return. The trading allowance exempts the first £1,000 of self-employment or casual income and the property allowance does the same for rental income, each measured on gross receipts. They cannot be combined with rent-a-room relief on the same income, and claiming the allowance means giving up the expense deduction for that source.
Employer National Insurance
The cost of an employee is more than the salary. Employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year, the 3% minimum pension contribution, holiday pay, equipment and management time all come on top. The Employment Allowance of £10,500 reduces the National Insurance for most employers with more than one person on the payroll.
Workplace pensions and auto-enrolment
Every employer must assess its workers for automatic enrolment from the first employee's start date. Those aged 22 to State Pension age earning over £10,000 a year must be enrolled into a qualifying pension with minimum contributions of 8% of qualifying earnings, at least 3% from the employer, and a declaration of compliance made to the Pensions Regulator within five months.
Record keeping
HMRC requires records of all income and expenses, bank statements, invoices and receipts to be kept for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline of the tax year they relate to, and companies must keep records for six years from the end of the accounting period. Digital copies are acceptable. Under Making Tax Digital the records must be kept in compatible software.
Allowable expenses
An expense is allowable against trading profit if it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. Materials, business travel other than ordinary commuting, a proportion of home running costs, software, insurance, professional fees, bank charges and protective clothing qualify. Client entertainment, ordinary clothing, fines and the private share of mixed-use costs do not.
Crypto records and reporting
Most crypto holders have taxable events they do not recognise, because every swap is a disposal even when no pounds change hands. The computation requires the complete transaction history from every exchange and wallet, pooled by asset with HMRC's matching rules applied. Exchange-generated tax reports are frequently wrong because they cannot see transfers between a user's own wallets.
Questions
Sole Trader Accounts questions from An t-Ob
What if HMRC checks my return?
HMRC can enquire into a return within twelve months of filing, and longer if something was omitted. Well-prepared accounts with organised records are the best protection. If an enquiry opens, routine correspondence about a return we filed is handled free, and formal enquiries go through our fixed-fee investigation service.
Can you deal with my previous accountant?
Yes. Once you authorise us we write for professional clearance and your records, including the previous year's accounts and capital allowance pools, which we need for continuity. Most firms respond within two weeks and nothing about switching changes our fee.
I started trading part-way through the year. What is my first accounting period?
Since the basis period reform, sole traders are taxed on profits of the tax year, 6 April to 5 April, regardless of accounting date. A first period runs from your start date to 5 April. If you prefer a different accounting date we apportion the profits, but for most new traders a 5 April year end is simplest.
Should I become a limited company?
It depends on profit level, how much you need to draw, liability exposure and whether you want to retain profits. At modest profits the saving is small after the extra compliance cost; at higher profits incorporation can help. Our free comparison tool gives a first view and the tax planning review gives a definitive one.
How are vehicles treated?
You can claim actual running costs with a business-use percentage plus capital allowances on the vehicle, or HMRC's simplified mileage rate of 45p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p after that. Once you choose a method for a vehicle you keep it. We compare both for your mileage and show the difference.
What National Insurance do sole traders pay?
Class 4 at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above that, collected through Self Assessment. Class 2 is no longer compulsory; profits above £7,105 earn National Insurance credits automatically, and below that you can pay Class 2 voluntarily at £3.65 a week to protect your State Pension record.
Which deadlines matter most for sole trader accounts?
The next four dates that apply to sole trader accounts are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For An t-Ob clients we diarise every one of them from the day you join and send reminders before each, so the work is done in good time rather than in the last week before a penalty.
How do I get started from An t-Ob?
Message us on WhatsApp or email with a sentence about your business and what you need. We reply in working hours with any questions and a fixed fee for sole trader accounts. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most An t-Ob clients are set up within a day.
One message from An t-Ob, one fixed price
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.