Sole Trader Accounts · South East
Sole trader accounts in Katherines
If you trade as a sole trader in Katherines 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 Katherines
Self-employed people in Katherines 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 Katherines, 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 Katherines
One fixed fee for sole trader accounts in Katherines, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.
Nothing for Katherines 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 Katherines 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. Katherines clients message the same person throughout and get an answer in working hours, usually within a few hours.
We explain sole trader accounts in the words Katherines business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.
Nothing is filed for Katherines 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 Katherines
Katherines is in South East, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sumners | 0.2 mi | SW |
| Cock Green, South East | 0.4 mi | NE |
| Great Parndon | 0.5 mi | NE |
| Parndon, Great | 0.5 mi | NE |
| Tylerscross | 0.7 mi | SW |
| Linford End | 0.7 mi | NE |
| Hare Street, Harlow | 0.8 mi | NE |
| Jack's Hatch | 0.9 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.
Late filing penalties
Penalties are the clearest reason to work to deadlines. A Self Assessment return one day late costs £100 regardless of whether any tax is due; three months late adds £10 a day. Late company accounts start at £150 and reach £1,500, and double if the previous year was also late. None of this is negotiable afterwards except through a narrow reasonable-excuse appeal.
Closing a company
Voluntary strike-off is available only to solvent companies. One that owes money it cannot pay needs a creditors' voluntary liquidation through a licensed insolvency practitioner, and directors who dissolve an insolvent company face personal consequences. For a solvent company the process takes three to four months from filing the DS01, with notice to creditors and shareholders within seven days.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
MTD for Income Tax replaces one annual return with quarterly digital updates and a year-end declaration, submitted from software. The threshold is gross trading and property income, measured two years earlier, and started at £50,000 in April 2026 before falling to £30,000 in April 2027. Anyone affected needs digital record keeping in place before their start date, not after.
The Self Assessment calendar
The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. Anyone new to Self Assessment must register by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which their untaxed income began. The online return and the balancing payment are due by 31 January, with a second payment on account on 31 July where they apply. Paper returns have an earlier deadline of 31 October and are rarely sensible.
Payments on account
If your Self Assessment bill exceeds £1,000 and less than 80% of your tax was collected at source, HMRC asks for two advance payments towards the following year, each half of the current bill, due 31 January and 31 July. The first year this happens the January payment is effectively one and a half times the bill. We model it in advance and show you how to reduce the payments if income is falling.
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.
Questions
Sole Trader Accounts questions from Katherines
What if HMRC checks my return?
HMRC can enquire into a return within twelve months of filing, and longer if something was omitted. Well-prepared accounts with organised records are the best protection. If an enquiry opens, routine correspondence about a return we filed is handled free, and formal enquiries go through our fixed-fee investigation service.
Can you deal with my previous accountant?
Yes. Once you authorise us we write for professional clearance and your records, including the previous year's accounts and capital allowance pools, which we need for continuity. Most firms respond within two weeks and nothing about switching changes our fee.
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.
When does Making Tax Digital apply to me?
From April 2026 if your combined self-employment and property income was over £50,000 in 2024/25; from April 2027 if over £30,000; and planned for April 2028 if over £20,000. It means digital records and quarterly updates to HMRC. Our bookkeeping service handles it, and we tell you your start date as part of the accounts work.
What records do I have to keep?
Records of all sales and takings, all purchases and expenses, and bank statements, for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline of the relevant tax year. Digital copies are acceptable. Under Making Tax Digital the records must be kept in compatible software from your start date.
Do you have an office in Katherines?
No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve Katherines 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 Katherines as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.
Is sole trader accounts in Katherines really the same price as elsewhere?
Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Katherines 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 Katherines
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.