Sole Trader Accounts · North West London
Sole trader accounts in Harlesden
Year-end accounts for sole traders in Harlesden, prepared online from whatever records you have and priced by the state they are in: £149 from tidy records, £249 from a shoebox of receipts. The accounts feed directly into your Self Assessment, and the fee is the same in Harlesden as in every other part of England.
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 Harlesden
Self-employed people in Harlesden 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 Harlesden, 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 Harlesden businesses file with IGI
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Harlesden clients know the fee for sole trader accounts 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 Harlesden get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to sole trader accounts.
Online only, UK based. There is no office in Harlesden 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 sole trader accounts: the person who prepared last year's work for your Harlesden business prepares this year's, and remembers what was agreed.
We explain sole trader accounts in the words Harlesden business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.
Nothing is filed for Harlesden 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 Harlesden
Harlesden is in North West London, within Brent, in the NW10 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Harlesden Fringe | 0.3 mi | SE |
| Lower Place | 0.4 mi | SW |
| Middlesex | 0.6 mi | SW |
| Old Oak Common | 0.8 mi | SE |
| Park Hill, Brent | 0.8 mi | NE |
| North Acton | 0.9 mi | S |
| Stonebridge, Brent | 1.0 mi | NW |
| Stonebridge Park | 1.0 mi | NW |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Salary versus dividends
Directors of their own companies usually take a salary at or just above the National Insurance thresholds, which keeps the year qualifying for State Pension and is deductible for Corporation Tax, with further income as dividends. Dividends above the £500 allowance are taxed at 10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35% by band and can only be paid from distributable profits after tax, with a minute and voucher each time.
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.
Switching accountants
You can switch accountant at any point in the year. The new firm requests clearance and your records from the old one, which cannot withhold your own documents though it may hold its own working papers until its fees are settled. Agent authorisations with HMRC and Companies House are transferred, and the next deadline is picked up without a gap.
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.
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
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.
Crypto records and reporting
HMRC treats cryptoassets as property. Swapping one token for another, spending crypto or gifting it are all disposals for Capital Gains Tax, and staking and lending rewards are income. Gains are computed under pooling rules with same-day and 30-day matching. From 2026 HMRC receives data from exchanges worldwide under the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, so unreported activity is increasingly visible.
Questions
Sole Trader Accounts questions from Harlesden
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.
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.
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.
Which deadlines matter most for sole trader accounts?
The next four dates that apply to sole trader accounts are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For Harlesden 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.
How do I get started from Harlesden?
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 sole trader accounts. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most Harlesden clients are set up within a day.
One message from Harlesden, one fixed price
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.