Startup Accountants · East London
Startup accountants in East London
If you are starting a company in East London, the accounting decisions you make in the first three months, share structure, VAT registration timing, how founders are paid, whether to seek SEIS assurance, shape the next three years. We get them right for startups across East London, online, for a monthly fee agreed before you join.
from £59/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
- Confirmation statement due within 14 days of your review date, at least once every 12 months
Who this is for
Startup Accountants for East London
New and early-stage companies in East London: founders incorporating for the first time, technology and product startups preparing to raise seed investment, service businesses moving from side project to full time, two or three co-founders who need the equity and payroll structured properly, and companies in their first two years who set up alone and want it done properly now.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- Company formation and HMRC registrations in the Launch package, or a review of what has already been set up
- Cloud bookkeeping configured for a growing business, with bank feeds and expense capture from day one
- Annual accounts and Corporation Tax return, with first-period and long-period rules handled
- VAT registration timing advised and quarterly returns run in the Grow and Scale packages
- Payroll for founders and first hires, with auto-enrolment, in the Scale package
- SEIS and EIS advance assurance applications prepared for founders raising investment
How it works
Startup Accountants from East London, 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
What you get in East London
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. East London clients know the fee for startup 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 East London get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to startup accountants.
We serve East London 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 startup accountants.
A named person handles your startup accountants from East London and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.
We explain startup accountants in the words East London business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.
Nothing is filed for East London 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 East London
East London is in East London, within Tower Hamlets, in the E1 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mile End, Tower Hamlets | 0.3 mi | NE |
| Mile End and Globe Town | 0.3 mi | NW |
| Mile End East | 0.5 mi | E |
| St. Dunstan's and Stepney Green | 0.5 mi | SW |
| Stepney, Tower Hamlets | 0.5 mi | SW |
| Globe Town | 0.5 mi | NW |
| Bow West | 0.6 mi | N |
| Tower Hamlets, East London | 0.6 mi | S |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Switching accountants
The main reasons people switch accountant are surprise invoices, missed deadlines and not understanding what they are being told. Switching involves a clearance letter between the firms, a transfer of records and agent authorisations, and a short handover of the current position. It takes about two weeks and should cost nothing extra.
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.
Closing a company
A solvent company that has finished its purpose can be dissolved by voluntary strike-off: form DS01 with a £13 Companies House fee, after three months without trading and with all debts paid, final accounts and tax return filed, and assets distributed. HMRC objects to any application where returns or tax are outstanding, so the sequence matters more than the form.
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.
Salary versus dividends
The salary-and-dividend split is the central planning decision for an owner-managed company. Salary costs employer National Insurance above £5,000 but is deductible; dividends are not deductible but attract lower personal rates and no National Insurance. The optimum changes each April with the thresholds and depends on the director's other income, so it should be set deliberately every year.
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.
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.
Questions
Startup Accountants questions from East London
Do I need a separate business bank account?
Legally the company must have its own account because it is a separate person from you; using a personal account mixes funds and creates director's loan problems. Digital business banks open accounts quickly for new companies, and we connect the feed to your software as part of setup.
What do investors expect to see in the accounts?
Clean, current bookkeeping; a cap table that matches Companies House; founder payments properly documented; VAT and PAYE up to date; and management accounts showing runway. Due diligence on a seed round routinely finds undocumented director's loans and unfiled confirmation statements, both of which cost time at exactly the wrong moment.
Should I register for VAT before I have to?
If your customers are VAT-registered businesses, early voluntary registration lets you reclaim VAT on setup costs with no real cost to customers. If you sell to consumers, registration adds 20% to your price or cuts your margin, so waiting until the £90,000 threshold is usually better. We model it for your business.
How should co-founders be paid?
Early on, often not at all, with equity as the reward. Once the company can afford it, a modest salary through payroll keeps National Insurance records intact and is deductible. Dividends require distributable profits, which loss-making startups do not have. Director's loans are a trap. We set the structure to suit the cash position.
What does the £59 Launch package include?
Company formation with the Companies House £100 fee passed on separately, Corporation Tax and PAYE registration, a registered office if you want one, cloud software set up, the first confirmation statement and the first set of accounts and CT600 filed. It is for founders who will keep their own books in the early months.
When do I need Grow or Scale?
Grow at £99 adds monthly bookkeeping and quarterly VAT returns, and suits most startups once transactions and VAT registration arrive. Scale at £149 adds payroll for founders and first hires with auto-enrolment, plus quarterly management accounts for the board or investors. You can move between packages at any month end.
Do you have an office in East London?
No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve East London 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 startup accountants is the same in East London as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.
Is startup accountants in East London really the same price as elsewhere?
Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in East London 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.
Ready to fix your fee in East London?
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.