Freelancer Accountants · South East London
Freelancer accountants in Cathedrals
Freelancing from Cathedrals means irregular income, a January tax bill that depends on a year you have half forgotten, and expenses scattered across personal cards. We tidy it monthly, tell you what to set aside, and file the return. The £99 starter session gets new freelancers set up properly before the first invoice. Fixed fees, online.
from £45/mo · fixed, per month
Next deadlines
- Online Self Assessment filing deadline and balancing payment due
- 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
- Companies House accounts due 9 months after your year end (a 31 December year end files by 30 September)
Who this is for
Freelancer Accountants for Cathedrals
Freelancers and independent professionals in Cathedrals: designers, developers, writers and editors, marketers, photographers and videographers, consultants, translators, musicians and performers, tutors and coaches, whether trading as a sole trader, through a limited company, or still deciding, and whether full time or alongside employment.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- Monthly bookkeeping from your bank feed with invoices and expenses captured by phone
- Self Assessment with the self-employment pages for sole trader freelancers, or accounts, CT600 and payroll for company freelancers
- Expense review for the costs freelancers miss: home office, equipment, software, subscriptions, training, travel
- Payments on account and a monthly set-aside figure so the January bill is never a surprise
- Making Tax Digital readiness and quarterly updates when your income reaches the threshold
- A going-freelance starter session covering structure, registration, pricing for tax and what to keep
How it works
Freelancer Accountants from Cathedrals, step by step
Scope the job
We find out what you need filed, when it is due and what state the records are in, and tell you which fixed-fee package applies.
Agree the price
The fee is confirmed in writing. There is no hourly billing and nothing added for questions during the work.
Hand over the records
Photographs, PDFs, software access or a spreadsheet, sent however suits you. We confirm what we have and what is missing within two working days.
Approve, then we submit
You review the draft with our explanation, sign off, and we file. Receipts, copies and the next deadlines come back to you immediately.
Why IGI
Why Cathedrals businesses file with IGI
One fixed fee for freelancer accountants in Cathedrals, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.
We work to the HMRC and Companies House calendar, not an appointment diary. Clients in Cathedrals get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to freelancer accountants.
We serve Cathedrals 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 freelancer accountants.
Continuity matters in freelancer accountants: the person who prepared last year's work for your Cathedrals business prepares this year's, and remembers what was agreed.
We explain freelancer accountants in the words Cathedrals business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.
You stay in control of freelancer accountants: drafts go to Cathedrals clients first, with the figures explained, and nothing leaves us until you say so.
Local facts
About Cathedrals
Cathedrals is in South East London, within Southwark, in the SE1 postcode district, England. For businesses in England the tax rules are those set by the UK Parliament: the 20/40/45% income tax bands, Class 4 National Insurance for the self-employed at 6% and 2%, Corporation Tax at 19% to 25%, and Stamp Duty Land Tax on property. Business rates are set locally by the council.
| Place | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Southwark | 0.3 mi | N |
| Borough, Southwark | 0.3 mi | E |
| Bankside, Southwark | 0.4 mi | N |
| Borough Market | 0.5 mi | NE |
| Elephant and Castle | 0.5 mi | S |
| Chaucer | 0.5 mi | SE |
| Waterloo, Lambeth | 0.6 mi | W |
| Queenhithe | 0.6 mi | N |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Workplace pensions and auto-enrolment
Auto-enrolment duties begin the day you take on your first employee, not when the Pensions Regulator writes to you. Eligible staff must be enrolled, contributions paid every pay period and re-enrolment carried out every three years. Director-only companies without employment contracts are usually exempt. Fines for non-compliance are fixed and escalating.
CIS deductions
Under the Construction Industry Scheme, contractors deduct 20% from a registered subcontractor's labour invoices, or 30% if unregistered, and pay it to HMRC. The subcontractor reclaims the deductions against their actual tax through Self Assessment, usually producing a refund because deductions are on turnover while tax is on profit. Contractors file a monthly return by the 19th.
Employer National Insurance
Since April 2025 employer National Insurance has been 15% on earnings above a £5,000 secondary threshold, a substantial increase for small employers. The Employment Allowance rose to £10,500 at the same time to soften it for the smallest businesses. Directors deciding their own salary weigh this cost against the Corporation Tax deduction a salary provides.
Confirmation statements and identity verification
The confirmation statement is the annual check that the public register is right: officers, registered office, SIC codes, shareholders and the PSC register. It carries a £50 fee and no financial penalty for lateness, but failure to file leads to compulsory strike-off. The identity verification regime introduced in November 2025 has added a further check to every statement.
The trading and property allowances
Small side incomes are covered by two £1,000 allowances, one for trading and one for property, which remove the need to register or report income below that level. Once income exceeds £1,000, the allowance can be used in place of expenses, a choice worth making deliberately: a freelancer with £900 of costs is better off with the allowance, one with £3,000 is not.
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 60-day property CGT return
Selling UK residential property that was not your main home for the whole period of ownership triggers a separate Capital Gains Tax return, due within 60 days of completion along with payment of the tax. This is in addition to the annual Self Assessment. The gain is taxed at 18% or 24% depending on your income band, after the £3,000 annual exempt amount.
Questions
Freelancer Accountants questions from Cathedrals
How do you handle irregular and overseas income?
Irregular income is normal for freelancers and the monthly summary shows the year-to-date position so lean months are planned for. Overseas clients are invoiced without UK VAT in most cases, and any foreign tax withheld can usually be credited against your UK liability. Both are handled within the package.
Do I need to register for VAT?
Only when your taxable turnover in any rolling 12 months exceeds £90,000, or voluntarily before that. Many freelancers with business clients register voluntarily to reclaim VAT on equipment; those with consumer clients usually wait. We monitor your rolling turnover and advise before the threshold is reached.
What is the annual-only option?
For £229 a year we prepare your year-end accounts and Self Assessment from the records you keep yourself, whether in software or a spreadsheet. It suits freelancers with modest transaction volumes who are organised. If the records arrive as a shoebox, the sole trader accounts shoebox fee applies instead.
Should I be a sole trader or a limited company?
At profits under roughly £30,000 to £40,000 a sole trader is simpler and the tax saving from a company is small after the extra compliance cost. Above that, or where clients prefer to contract with a company or liability is a concern, incorporation can make sense. Our free comparison tool gives a first view and the starter session a definitive one.
What does the £79 company package include?
Monthly bookkeeping, director payroll with RTI submissions, dividend paperwork, the annual statutory accounts and CT600 filed with Companies House and HMRC, the confirmation statement filed (Companies House £50 fee separate), and deadline tracking. Your personal Self Assessment is added at the published £129 if needed.
What does the £45 sole trader package include?
Monthly bookkeeping from your bank feed with receipts captured by phone, a monthly summary showing profit and the tax accruing, your Self Assessment with the self-employment pages prepared and filed, payments on account calculated, and deadline tracking. Software is in your name and billed to you separately.
How do I get started from Cathedrals?
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 freelancer accountants. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most Cathedrals clients are set up within a day.
Which deadlines matter most for freelancer accountants?
The next four dates that apply to freelancer accountants are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For Cathedrals 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.
Fixed fees, filed on time, for Cathedrals
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.