Accounting

Contractor Accountants · South East

Contractor accountants in Braintree

Contractor accounting for limited company contractors in Braintree: accounts, Corporation Tax, monthly payroll and dividend paperwork from £75 a month, with VAT and bookkeeping at £105 and the full package including your Self Assessment at £125. Fixed, published, the same in Braintree as in every part of England.

from £75/mo · fixed, per month

Next deadlines

  • PAYE and National Insurance for last month paid to HMRC (electronic)
  • PAYE and National Insurance for last month paid to HMRC (electronic)
  • PAYE and National Insurance for last month paid to HMRC (electronic)
  • Online Self Assessment filing deadline and balancing payment due

Who this is for

Contractor Accountants for Braintree

Contractors and interim professionals in Braintree working through their own limited company: IT and software contractors, engineers, project managers, interim finance staff, consultants, medical and allied health locums who have incorporated, and permanent employees about to go contracting who need the company set up and the first engagement reviewed.

What is included

Everything inside the fixed fee

  • Statutory accounts and Corporation Tax return prepared and filed each year
  • Director payroll run monthly with RTI submissions and the salary set at the efficient level
  • Dividend vouchers and board minutes for every distribution, with the available reserves checked first
  • Quarterly VAT returns and bookkeeping in the Plus and Complete packages
  • Director's Self Assessment and an annual planning call in the Complete package
  • IR35 status reviews of your contracts and working practices, with a written opinion

How it works

Contractor Accountants from Braintree, step by step

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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 Braintree businesses file with IGI

One fixed fee for contractor accountants in Braintree, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.

Nothing for Braintree is left to the last week. Each deadline relevant to contractor accountants is tracked from the day you join, with the next four shown on every page we send you.

We serve Braintree remotely by design: records by WhatsApp or email, drafts back for approval, filing electronic. The saving on premises is passed to you in the fee for contractor accountants.

A named person handles your contractor accountants from Braintree and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.

We explain contractor accountants in the words Braintree business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.

Nothing is filed for Braintree until you have reviewed and approved it. You see the draft, you ask questions, you sign off, then we submit and send you the receipt.

Local facts

About Braintree

Braintree is in South East, in the CM7 postcode district, England. Income tax in England follows the UK rates: 20% basic to £50,270, 40% higher to £125,140 and 45% additional, with the personal allowance of £12,570 tapered away above £100,000. National Insurance, VAT and Corporation Tax are UK-wide, and Stamp Duty Land Tax applies to property purchases.

Nearby places we also serve for contractor accountants
PlaceDistanceDirection
Bocking End0.2 miN
Bocking, Braintree0.6 miN
Chapel Hill, South East0.6 miE
Galley's Corner1 miSE
Great Notley1 miSW
Rayne, South East1 miSE
Braintree Green2 miW
Row Green2 miSW

Worth knowing

Rules that come up in this work

Switching accountants

Changing accountant is simpler than most people fear. You authorise the new firm, which writes to the old one for professional clearance and your records; the outgoing accountant must hand over your own documents and usually does within two weeks. The new firm registers as your agent with HMRC and picks up the next filing. There is no need to wait for a year end.

Closing a company

Voluntary strike-off is available only to solvent companies. One that owes money it cannot pay needs a creditors' voluntary liquidation through a licensed insolvency practitioner, and directors who dissolve an insolvent company face personal consequences. For a solvent company the process takes three to four months from filing the DS01, with notice to creditors and shareholders within seven days.

Dormant companies

Dormancy is a status that is easy to lose. The strict rule is no accounting transactions other than share capital and Companies House fees, which means no bank account activity at all in practice. Fees should be paid personally by the director. A company that traded and has stopped becomes dormant only after its final trading accounts and tax return are filed and HMRC is told.

The trading and property allowances

The first £1,000 of trading income and, separately, the first £1,000 of property income each year is tax free under the trading and property allowances. Below those figures no return is needed for that income. Above them you can deduct the £1,000 allowance instead of actual expenses if that is better, which suits side businesses and single-room lets with few costs.

Employer National Insurance

Employers pay National Insurance at 15% on each employee's earnings above the £5,000 secondary threshold, following the April 2025 changes. The Employment Allowance offsets up to £10,500 of this for eligible employers, which for a small team often removes the liability entirely, but companies where the director is the only employee do not qualify.

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.

Questions

Contractor Accountants questions from Braintree

I am about to leave permanent employment to contract. Where do I start?

With the company formation and the first contract review. Our £99 formation-plus-registrations package sets up the company with Corporation Tax and PAYE registered; the IR35 review of your first engagement decides how the income will be taxed. Join the Essential package from the month you start invoicing.

Do I need business insurance?

Most client contracts require professional indemnity and public liability cover, and employer's liability is a legal requirement if the company employs anyone other than the director. Insurance is not something we sell, but we tell you what your contracts require and the premiums are deductible for Corporation Tax.

My client has put me inside IR35. Should I still use my company?

It can still be worth it if you have other outside-IR35 work, but for a single inside-IR35 engagement an umbrella company or direct PAYE is often simpler and cheaper. We run the comparison for your specific numbers and tell you honestly, even if the answer is that you do not need us for that contract.

Can I claim travel and subsistence?

For engagements outside IR35, travel to a client site that is a temporary workplace is claimable, subject to the 24-month rule: once you know an engagement will exceed 24 months at the same site, it stops being temporary. Subsistence follows the travel. Inside-IR35 engagements lose these claims. We check each engagement.

How are dividends documented?

Each dividend needs a board minute approving it and a dividend voucher recording the date, amount and shareholder. The company must have sufficient distributable profits after tax at the time. We check the reserves before each dividend, produce the paperwork and keep it on file, because undocumented dividends are reclassified by HMRC as salary or loans.

What is the flat rate VAT scheme and should I use it?

For most contractors with low costs the limited-cost-trader rate of 16.5% removes any advantage of the flat rate scheme, and the standard scheme reclaiming input VAT on equipment and software is better. Contractors with significant qualifying costs may differ. We calculate both at registration and review annually.

Which deadlines matter most for contractor accountants?

The next four dates that apply to contractor accountants are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For Braintree 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 Braintree?

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 contractor accountants. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most Braintree clients are set up within a day.

Ready to fix your fee in Braintree?

Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.

WhatsApp for a fixed quote