E-commerce Accountants · Central London
E-commerce accountants in Chinatown
If your Chinatown business sells through marketplaces, your own store or both, the hard part is not the bookkeeping, it is the VAT: when the marketplace accounts for it, when you do, how imports are treated, what happens with EU customers. We handle this for sellers across Central London and the £149 health check finds the errors before HMRC does.
from £79/mo · fixed, per month
Next deadlines
- VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
- VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
- VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
- Online Self Assessment filing deadline and balancing payment due
Who this is for
E-commerce Accountants for Chinatown
Online sellers in Chinatown: marketplace traders on one or several platforms, brands selling through their own store, dropshippers, subscription box businesses, sellers importing stock from overseas, UK sellers with EU or international customers, and businesses approaching or past the £90,000 VAT threshold who need the registration and returns handled correctly.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- Sales, fees, refunds and payouts reconciled per channel from marketplace and payment-processor reports
- VAT handled correctly for UK sales, marketplace-collected VAT, imports, EU and overseas customers
- Inventory accounting with cost of sales and stock valuation in the top package
- Cloud software integrated with your channels so transactions post automatically
- Annual accounts and Corporation Tax or Self Assessment, with the figures tying back to channel reports
- Marketplace VAT health check: a one-off review of your registrations and settings against the rules
How it works
E-commerce Accountants from Chinatown, 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 Chinatown businesses file with IGI
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Chinatown clients know the fee for e-commerce accountants 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 Chinatown get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to e-commerce accountants.
We serve Chinatown 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 e-commerce accountants.
A named person handles your e-commerce accountants from Chinatown and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.
We explain e-commerce accountants in the words Chinatown business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.
Nothing is filed for Chinatown 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 Chinatown
Chinatown is in Central London, within Westminster, in the WC2H 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.
| Place | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Seven Dials | 0.2 mi | NE |
| Piccadilly, Westminster | 0.3 mi | SW |
| Soho, Westminster | 0.3 mi | NW |
| St Giles | 0.3 mi | N |
| London | 0.3 mi | SE |
| Whitehall, Westminster | 0.3 mi | S |
| Tottenham Court Road | 0.3 mi | N |
| Covent Garden | 0.4 mi | E |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Salary versus dividends
Paying yourself from a company involves two routes with different tax treatment. Salary through payroll is a company expense and builds a National Insurance record; dividends come from post-tax profit at lower personal rates. Undocumented drawings that are neither become director's loans, with a 35.75% section 455 charge if not repaid within nine months of the year end.
Director's loan accounts
A director's loan account records money moving between a director and the company that is not salary or dividend. If the director owes the company money nine months and one day after the year end, the company pays section 455 tax at 35.75% of the balance, refundable only when the loan is repaid. Loans over £10,000 are also a benefit in kind unless interest is charged at HMRC's official rate.
The VAT registration threshold
Watching the rolling twelve-month turnover figure is one of the quiet jobs of monthly bookkeeping, because the £90,000 VAT threshold arrives silently. Crossing it brings quarterly returns, Making Tax Digital software and a decision about schemes. Crossing it late brings a bill for VAT you could not recover from customers and a penalty for failing to notify.
Corporation Tax rates and marginal relief
Corporation Tax is not a flat rate. Profits to £50,000 pay 19%, profits above £250,000 pay 25%, and the band between is taxed at an effective marginal rate of 26.5% through the marginal relief mechanism. Associated companies share the thresholds, which catches directors who own more than one company and is the most common cause of underpaid tax in owner-managed groups.
Late filing penalties
Lateness is expensive in a way that compounds. For individuals, £100 immediately, then daily penalties, then percentage-based ones at six and twelve months, with interest running on unpaid tax throughout. For companies, Companies House penalties scale with delay and double on repeat, and HMRC adds its own for a late CT600. Filing on time is the cheapest tax planning there is.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax began in April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, extends to those over £30,000 in April 2027 and is planned for £20,000 in April 2028. It requires digital records in compatible software and four quarterly updates to HMRC each year, with a final declaration replacing the traditional return. Payment dates are unchanged.
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.
Questions
E-commerce Accountants questions from Chinatown
What is the marketplace VAT health check?
A one-off £149 review of your VAT registration, your marketplace tax settings, your treatment of imports and overseas sales, and a sample of recent returns against the rules. It produces a written report of errors found and what to do about them. Most sellers who have set things up themselves have at least one.
Can you reconcile my payment processor as well as the marketplace?
Yes. Card processors and payment gateways on your own store are integrated so that gross sales, fees and payouts post and reconcile automatically. The fee treatment, including VAT on processor fees, is configured at setup, which is where most self-built integrations go wrong.
I sell to EU customers. What VAT applies?
Since 2021 sales of goods to EU consumers are exports from the UK, zero-rated here, with EU VAT due in the customer's country. The EU's Import One Stop Shop lets you account for consignments under €150 through one registration. Above that, local registration or the customer paying on delivery. We advise on the right route for your volumes.
When do I need the inventory package?
When you hold meaningful stock. Without inventory accounting, the cost of goods purchased is expensed when bought, which distorts profit between periods and misstates the balance sheet. The £179 package tracks stock, calculates cost of sales and values closing stock, which lenders, investors and HMRC all expect from a stock-holding business.
Do I need to register for VAT if the marketplace collects it?
Marketplace-collected VAT does not count towards your registration threshold, but your other sales do. Many sellers have a mix and cross the £90,000 threshold without realising. We monitor your rolling 12-month taxable turnover monthly and tell you when registration is approaching.
Should I trade as a sole trader or a company?
Many sellers start as sole traders and incorporate as profits grow. A company protects personal assets from supplier and platform disputes, and can be more tax efficient at higher profits, but adds compliance. Marketplaces also treat business accounts differently. We run the comparison for your numbers.
Do you have an office in Chinatown?
No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve Chinatown and every other UK postcode remotely, with records sent by WhatsApp or email and everything filed electronically. The absence of local premises is why the fee for e-commerce accountants is the same in Chinatown as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.
Is e-commerce accountants in Chinatown really the same price as elsewhere?
Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Chinatown pays and what a client in any other part of England pays. It is confirmed in writing before work starts and the invoice matches the quote. Where a higher package applies because your situation is more complex, we say so at the quote stage, never afterwards.
One message from Chinatown, one fixed price
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.