Contractor Accountants · North London
Contractor accountants in Highbury West
Contractor accounting for limited company contractors in Highbury West: accounts, Corporation Tax, monthly payroll and dividend paperwork from £75 a month, with VAT and bookkeeping at £105 and the full package including your Self Assessment at £125. Fixed, published, the same in Highbury West as in every part of England.
from £75/mo · fixed, per month
Next deadlines
- PAYE and National Insurance for last month paid to HMRC (electronic)
- PAYE and National Insurance for last month paid to HMRC (electronic)
- PAYE and National Insurance for last month paid to HMRC (electronic)
- Online Self Assessment filing deadline and balancing payment due
Who this is for
Contractor Accountants for Highbury West
Contractors and interim professionals in Highbury West working through their own limited company: IT and software contractors, engineers, project managers, interim finance staff, consultants, medical and allied health locums who have incorporated, and permanent employees about to go contracting who need the company set up and the first engagement reviewed.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- Statutory accounts and Corporation Tax return prepared and filed each year
- Director payroll run monthly with RTI submissions and the salary set at the efficient level
- Dividend vouchers and board minutes for every distribution, with the available reserves checked first
- Quarterly VAT returns and bookkeeping in the Plus and Complete packages
- Director's Self Assessment and an annual planning call in the Complete package
- IR35 status reviews of your contracts and working practices, with a written opinion
How it works
Contractor Accountants from Highbury West, 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 Highbury West businesses file with IGI
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Highbury West clients know the fee for contractor 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 Highbury West get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to contractor accountants.
Online only, UK based. There is no office in Highbury West 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 contractor accountants: the person who prepared last year's work for your Highbury West business prepares this year's, and remembers what was agreed.
Plain English, with the numbers. Every draft for Highbury West comes with a short explanation of what the figures mean and what, if anything, you should do about them.
You stay in control of contractor accountants: drafts go to Highbury West clients first, with the figures explained, and nothing leaves us until you say so.
Local facts
About Highbury West
Highbury West is in North London, within Islington, in the N5 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Highbury East | 0.4 mi | SE |
| Lower Holloway | 0.4 mi | SW |
| Finsbury Park | 0.5 mi | N |
| Holloway, Islington | 0.5 mi | W |
| North London | 0.8 mi | W |
| Highbury Corner | 0.8 mi | S |
| Highbury, Islington | 0.8 mi | S |
| Brownswood | 0.8 mi | NE |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
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
Striking off a company is cheap but must be done in order: stop trading, file the final accounts and CT600, pay the tax, close VAT and PAYE, distribute the remaining assets, close the bank account, then apply. Anything left in the company at dissolution passes to the Crown. Distributions up to £25,000 are taxed as capital gains; above that a formal liquidation is usually needed to keep capital treatment.
Dormant companies
A dormant company is one with no significant accounting transactions in the year, where the only permitted entries are the payment for shares on incorporation, Companies House fees and penalties. It still files a confirmation statement and simplified dormant accounts every year. A bank charge or an accountant's fee paid from the company ends dormancy and requires full accounts.
The trading and property allowances
Small side incomes are covered by two £1,000 allowances, one for trading and one for property, which remove the need to register or report income below that level. Once income exceeds £1,000, the allowance can be used in place of expenses, a choice worth making deliberately: a freelancer with £900 of costs is better off with the allowance, one with £3,000 is not.
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.
Workplace pensions and auto-enrolment
Workplace pension compliance is part of payroll, not separate from it. Each pay period the payroll assesses who is eligible, calculates employer and employee contributions on qualifying earnings between the lower and upper thresholds, and sends the contribution file to the scheme. The minimum total is 8%, and many employers choose to contribute more as a recruitment advantage.
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.
Questions
Contractor Accountants questions from Highbury West
My client has put me inside IR35. Should I still use my company?
It can still be worth it if you have other outside-IR35 work, but for a single inside-IR35 engagement an umbrella company or direct PAYE is often simpler and cheaper. We run the comparison for your specific numbers and tell you honestly, even if the answer is that you do not need us for that contract.
Can I claim travel and subsistence?
For engagements outside IR35, travel to a client site that is a temporary workplace is claimable, subject to the 24-month rule: once you know an engagement will exceed 24 months at the same site, it stops being temporary. Subsistence follows the travel. Inside-IR35 engagements lose these claims. We check each engagement.
How are dividends documented?
Each dividend needs a board minute approving it and a dividend voucher recording the date, amount and shareholder. The company must have sufficient distributable profits after tax at the time. We check the reserves before each dividend, produce the paperwork and keep it on file, because undocumented dividends are reclassified by HMRC as salary or loans.
What is the flat rate VAT scheme and should I use it?
For most contractors with low costs the limited-cost-trader rate of 16.5% removes any advantage of the flat rate scheme, and the standard scheme reclaiming input VAT on equipment and software is better. Contractors with significant qualifying costs may differ. We calculate both at registration and review annually.
What is in the £75 Essential package?
Annual statutory accounts and CT600 filed with Companies House and HMRC, monthly director payroll with RTI submissions, dividend vouchers and minutes, the confirmation statement filed (Companies House £50 fee separate), and deadline tracking. It suits contractors outside VAT or who prefer to do their own VAT and bookkeeping.
What do Plus and Complete add?
Plus at £105 adds quarterly VAT returns and monthly bookkeeping from your bank feed, so the records are kept for you. Complete at £125 adds the director's Self Assessment return and an annual tax planning call covering salary, dividends, pension and the year ahead. Most contractors inside VAT choose Plus or Complete.
Which deadlines matter most for contractor accountants?
The next four dates that apply to contractor accountants are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For Highbury West 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 Highbury West?
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 contractor accountants. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most Highbury West clients are set up within a day.
One message from Highbury West, one fixed price
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.