Accounting

Bookkeeping · East London

Bookkeeping services in Hackney Downs

If you run a business in Hackney Downs and bookkeeping is the job that never gets done, hand it to us. We connect your bank, you forward receipts by WhatsApp or email, and each month the books are reconciled and ready for VAT, Making Tax Digital or year end. One monthly fee, published on this page, identical across East London.

from £49/mo · fixed, per month

Next deadlines

  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
  • MTD quarterly update deadline (7 August, 7 November, 7 February, 7 May)
  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month

Who this is for

Bookkeeping for Hackney Downs

Sole traders, partnerships and limited companies in Hackney Downs with anything from a dozen to a few hundred bank transactions a month: trades, consultants, online sellers, cafes and shops, landlords with several properties, and anyone approaching the VAT threshold or Making Tax Digital for Income Tax who needs digital records kept properly.

What is included

Everything inside the fixed fee

  • Cloud accounting software set up with bank feeds for every business account and card
  • Every transaction categorised and reconciled each month, with queries sent to you in one batch
  • Receipt and invoice capture by photo or email forwarding, matched to the bank
  • Sales invoices, supplier bills and VAT coding kept current and Making Tax Digital-ready
  • A monthly position summary: income, costs, cash, what you owe HMRC so far
  • Year-end handover to our accounts team or your own accountant with no re-work

How it works

Bookkeeping from Hackney Downs, 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 Hackney Downs businesses file with IGI

The price for bookkeeping is published on this page and is what a client in Hackney Downs pays. We confirm it in writing first, and the invoice matches the quote.

Deadline-first: the dates that matter for bookkeeping are shown at the top of this page, diarised for every Hackney Downs client and chased before they arrive.

Online only, UK based. There is no office in Hackney Downs to pay for, which is why the fee is the same here as anywhere in England; the work is done by people in the UK who answer the same day.

Continuity matters in bookkeeping: the person who prepared last year's work for your Hackney Downs business prepares this year's, and remembers what was agreed.

The output for Hackney Downs 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 bookkeeping.

Approval before filing is a rule, not a courtesy. For bookkeeping in Hackney Downs, every submission to HMRC or Companies House follows your written go-ahead.

Local facts

About Hackney Downs

Hackney Downs is in East London, within Hackney, in the E8 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 bookkeeping
PlaceDistanceDirection
South Hackney0.1 miSE
Hackney Central0.2 miSE
Lower Clapton0.5 miNE
Shacklewell0.5 miNW
London Fields, Hackney0.5 miS
Hackney, East London0.6 miSE
Queensbridge0.6 miS
Dalston Junction0.7 miW

Worth knowing

Rules that come up in this work

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.

Crypto records and reporting

Most crypto holders have taxable events they do not recognise, because every swap is a disposal even when no pounds change hands. The computation requires the complete transaction history from every exchange and wallet, pooled by asset with HMRC's matching rules applied. Exchange-generated tax reports are frequently wrong because they cannot see transfers between a user's own wallets.

CIS deductions

The Construction Industry Scheme affects both sides of a construction payment. Contractors must verify subcontractors, deduct the right amount, issue statements and file monthly, with penalties from £100 for each late return. Subcontractors suffer deductions on turnover and recover the excess at the year end. Limited company subcontractors offset deductions against PAYE monthly instead.

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

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.

Allowable expenses

The expenses sole traders most often miss are home working costs, claimed by actual proportion or HMRC's flat rate, the business share of phone and internet, mileage at 45p for the first 10,000 business miles, and training that maintains existing skills. The ones most often claimed wrongly are commuting, entertaining customers and clothes that could be worn outside work.

Employer National Insurance

The cost of an employee is more than the salary. Employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year, the 3% minimum pension contribution, holiday pay, equipment and management time all come on top. The Employment Allowance of £10,500 reduces the National Insurance for most employers with more than one person on the payroll.

Questions

Bookkeeping questions from Hackney Downs

Will I need this for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax?

If you are a sole trader or landlord with qualifying income over £50,000 you joined MTD for Income Tax in April 2026, and the £30,000 threshold follows in April 2027. It requires digital records and quarterly updates to HMRC. Our bookkeeping service keeps the records in the required form and submits the updates.

How do you handle cash sales and personal spending from the business account?

Cash takings are recorded from your till or daily summary, and personal spending is coded to drawings or the director's loan account so it does not end up as a business expense. We flag patterns that could cause problems, such as a growing director's loan balance.

Can you catch up a backlog?

Yes. Backlogs are quoted as a fixed fee based on the number of months and transactions, agreed before we start. Once caught up, the normal monthly band applies. We tell you honestly if the backlog is small enough to do yourself.

What is the VAT bundle?

Bookkeeping plus quarterly VAT returns for £119 a month, covering up to 150 transactions. Because we already have the coded transactions, the return is prepared and submitted through MTD-compatible software without extra data entry, and you approve it before anything goes to HMRC.

What do I have to do each month?

Forward or photograph receipts and supplier bills as they arrive, and answer one batch of queries from us about transactions we cannot identify. Most clients spend under an hour a month. Sales invoices can be raised in the software by you or by us.

Is bookkeeping the same as accounts?

No. Bookkeeping is the ongoing recording and reconciling of transactions. Accounts and tax returns are the year-end filings built from those records. Clean bookkeeping makes the year-end work faster and cheaper, which is why our sole trader accounts fee from tidy records is £149 and from a shoebox is £249.

Do you have an office in Hackney Downs?

No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve Hackney Downs 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 bookkeeping is the same in Hackney Downs as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.

Is bookkeeping in Hackney Downs really the same price as elsewhere?

Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Hackney Downs 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 Hackney Downs?

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