Accounting

Sole Trader Accounts · South East

Sole trader accounts in Fareham

If you trade as a sole trader in Fareham and your records are a bank statement and a bag of receipts, that is fine. We rebuild the year, tell you what you can claim, and produce accounts you can rely on. From £149 for the self-employed across South East, with monthly bookkeeping available if you would rather never have a shoebox again.

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 Fareham

Self-employed people in Fareham 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 Fareham, 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

The IGI way of working, in Fareham

One fixed fee for sole trader accounts in Fareham, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.

Nothing for Fareham is left to the last week. Each deadline relevant to sole trader accounts is tracked from the day you join, with the next four shown on every page we send you.

No appointments, no travel across South East, no parking. Everything for sole trader accounts in Fareham happens online, with a real person on the other end during UK working hours.

You get one contact for sole trader accounts, not a queue. Fareham clients message the same person throughout and get an answer in working hours, usually within a few hours.

The output for Fareham clients is never just a form. It is the form, a one-page summary of what it says, and a note of the decisions it points to for sole trader accounts.

Approval before filing is a rule, not a courtesy. For sole trader accounts in Fareham, every submission to HMRC or Companies House follows your written go-ahead.

Local facts

About Fareham

Fareham is in South East, in the PO16 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 sole trader accounts
PlaceDistanceDirection
Old Turnpike0.6 miN
Turnpike, Old0.6 miN
Wallington, Fareham0.6 miNE
Hoeford0.9 miS
Fort Fareham0.9 miSW
West End, Fareham1.0 miSW
Fareham, North1 miN
North Fareham1 miN

Worth knowing

Rules that come up in this work

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.

Record keeping

Good records are the difference between a quick enquiry and a long one. For the self-employed, five years after the filing deadline; for companies, six years from the year end; for VAT, six years. Photographs of receipts, PDF statements and software exports all count. The requirement is to keep records, not paper, and a well-organised cloud folder satisfies it.

Allowable expenses

Expense claims are where a return is won or lost in an enquiry. The test is wholly and exclusively for the trade; where a cost is mixed, the business proportion can be claimed if it can be identified. Capital items such as equipment and vans are relieved through capital allowances rather than as expenses, except under the cash basis where they are simply deducted when paid.

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.

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

The most common tax problem in owner-managed companies is an overdrawn director's loan account: drawings taken during the year that were never declared as dividends or salary. The company faces a 35.75% charge on the balance outstanding nine months after the year end, and the director may have a benefit in kind. We review the account before every year end to clear it properly.

Questions

Sole Trader Accounts questions from Fareham

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.

Cash basis or accruals: which should I use?

Since April 2024 the cash basis is the default for sole traders and has no turnover limit; you record income when received and expenses when paid. Accruals matches income and costs to the period they relate to and suits businesses with stock, large debtors or losses to carry. We recommend one based on your figures and explain why.

What can I claim for working from home?

Either a proportion of actual household costs based on rooms and hours, or HMRC's simplified flat rate of £10 to £26 a month depending on hours worked at home. We calculate both and claim the higher. Mortgage interest, rent, council tax, utilities and insurance can all form part of the actual-cost method.

What is the difference between the £149 and £249 fees?

The £149 fee applies when your records are already organised: bookkeeping software, a spreadsheet that reconciles to the bank, or our own monthly bookkeeping. The £249 fee covers rebuilding the year from bank statements and loose receipts. We look at what you have before quoting so the fee is fixed from the start.

Do I need accounts as well as a tax return?

HMRC requires a profit figure on the self-employment pages, and the accounts are how that figure is produced and supported. Very small businesses can complete the three-line account on the return, but once turnover is meaningful, proper accounts protect you in an enquiry and show you how the business is actually doing. The £229 bundle includes both.

Do you have an office in Fareham?

No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve Fareham 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 sole trader accounts is the same in Fareham as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.

Is sole trader accounts in Fareham really the same price as elsewhere?

Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Fareham 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.

Let us take the deadlines off your plate in Fareham

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