Sole Trader Accounts · West Midlands
Sole trader accounts in Lye
If you trade as a sole trader in Lye 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 West Midlands, 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 Lye
Self-employed people in Lye 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 Lye, 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 Lye
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Lye 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 Lye get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to sole trader accounts.
We serve Lye remotely by design: records by WhatsApp or email, drafts back for approval, filing electronic. The saving on premises is passed to you in the fee for sole trader accounts.
A named person handles your sole trader accounts from Lye and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.
We explain sole trader accounts in the words Lye business owners use, not in accountant's shorthand, and we show our working so you can check it.
Nothing is filed for Lye 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 Lye
Lye is in West Midlands, in the DY9 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hay Green, Dudley | 0.3 mi | SW |
| Hayes, The | 0.4 mi | E |
| The Hayes | 0.4 mi | E |
| Shepherds Brook Road | 0.4 mi | SW |
| Dunn's Bank | 0.4 mi | NE |
| Aston's Fold | 0.4 mi | NW |
| Stambermill | 0.5 mi | W |
| Baldwin's Green | 0.5 mi | S |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Switching accountants
Changing accountant is simpler than most people fear. You authorise the new firm, which writes to the old one for professional clearance and your records; the outgoing accountant must hand over your own documents and usually does within two weeks. The new firm registers as your agent with HMRC and picks up the next filing. There is no need to wait for a year end.
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.
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.
Dormant companies
Companies formed to protect a name or hold a future business are dormant but not exempt: Companies House still expects dormant accounts within nine months of the year end and a confirmation statement annually with its £50 fee, and HMRC must be told the company is dormant or it will demand Corporation Tax returns. The filings are short, but the penalties for missing them are the same as for a trading company.
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.
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 Lye
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.
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.
How are vehicles treated?
You can claim actual running costs with a business-use percentage plus capital allowances on the vehicle, or HMRC's simplified mileage rate of 45p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p after that. Once you choose a method for a vehicle you keep it. We compare both for your mileage and show the difference.
What National Insurance do sole traders pay?
Class 4 at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above that, collected through Self Assessment. Class 2 is no longer compulsory; profits above £7,105 earn National Insurance credits automatically, and below that you can pay Class 2 voluntarily at £3.65 a week to protect your State Pension record.
Do you have an office in Lye?
No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve Lye 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 Lye as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.
Is sole trader accounts in Lye really the same price as elsewhere?
Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Lye 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 Lye
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.