Accounting

Payroll · South East

Payroll services in Merry Oak

Payroll in Merry Oak without the software subscription, the year-end panic or the auto-enrolment letters you do not understand. We handle starters and leavers, statutory pay, pension contributions and the monthly PAYE payment note, and every submission reaches HMRC on time. Fixed monthly fees, agreed in writing, entirely online.

from £25/mo · fixed, per month

Next deadlines

  • PAYE and National Insurance for last month paid to HMRC (electronic)
  • Workplace pension contributions paid over to the scheme
  • PAYE and National Insurance for last month paid to HMRC (electronic)
  • Workplace pension contributions paid over to the scheme

Who this is for

Payroll for Merry Oak

Employers in Merry Oak with one to around ten people on the payroll: single-director companies paying a salary alongside dividends, trades with a few employees, cafes, salons and shops with hourly staff, professional practices, and anyone taking on their first employee who needs PAYE registration and auto-enrolment set up correctly from day one.

What is included

Everything inside the fixed fee

  • Payroll processed every pay period with electronic payslips to each employee
  • Full Payment Submission to HMRC on or before every pay day, and the Employer Payment Summary when needed
  • PAYE, National Insurance and student loan deductions calculated, with a monthly payment note for HMRC
  • Workplace pension assessment, enrolment and contribution files each pay period
  • Starters, leavers, P45s, statutory sick, maternity and paternity pay handled as they arise
  • Year-end: P60s to employees, final submissions, and P11Ds where benefits are provided

How it works

Payroll from Merry Oak, step by step

  1. Scope the job

    We find out what you need filed, when it is due and what state the records are in, and tell you which fixed-fee package applies.

  2. Agree the price

    The fee is confirmed in writing. There is no hourly billing and nothing added for questions during the work.

  3. Hand over the records

    Photographs, PDFs, software access or a spreadsheet, sent however suits you. We confirm what we have and what is missing within two working days.

  4. Approve, then we submit

    You review the draft with our explanation, sign off, and we file. Receipts, copies and the next deadlines come back to you immediately.

Why IGI

The IGI way of working, in Merry Oak

No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Merry Oak clients know the fee for payroll before they send a single document, and it stays fixed.

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

We serve Merry Oak 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 payroll.

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

Plain English, with the numbers. Every draft for Merry Oak comes with a short explanation of what the figures mean and what, if anything, you should do about them.

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

Local facts

About Merry Oak

Merry Oak is in South East, England. For businesses in England the tax rules are those set by the UK Parliament: the 20/40/45% income tax bands, Class 4 National Insurance for the self-employed at 6% and 2%, Corporation Tax at 19% to 25%, and Stamp Duty Land Tax on property. Business rates are set locally by the council.

Nearby places we also serve for payroll
PlaceDistanceDirection
Itchen0.4 miS
Peartree Green, Southampton0.5 miSW
Bitterne0.6 miN
Millbank, Southampton0.7 miW
Sholing Common0.7 miE
Bitterne Manor0.8 miNW
Northam, Southampton0.8 miW
Belvidere0.8 miW

Worth knowing

Rules that come up in this work

CIS deductions

Under the Construction Industry Scheme, contractors deduct 20% from a registered subcontractor's labour invoices, or 30% if unregistered, and pay it to HMRC. The subcontractor reclaims the deductions against their actual tax through Self Assessment, usually producing a refund because deductions are on turnover while tax is on profit. Contractors file a monthly return by the 19th.

Confirmation statements and identity verification

Companies House has tightened its requirements under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act: every company needs a registered email address and an appropriate registered office, every statement includes a lawful-purpose declaration, and every director and PSC must verify their identity. The confirmation statement, due annually with a £50 fee, is where most of this is confirmed.

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.

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.

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.

The Self Assessment calendar

Four dates govern Self Assessment: 5 October to register, 31 October for paper returns, 31 January to file online and pay, and 31 July for the second payment on account. Missing the January date triggers an automatic £100 penalty before any tax is even considered, so we treat it as the fixed point around which the rest of the year is planned.

Director's loan accounts

Money taken from a company has to be something: salary, dividend, expense reimbursement or loan. If it is a loan and remains outstanding nine months after the year end, the company pays tax at the dividend higher rate on it until it is repaid. Clearing the balance with a properly declared dividend before the deadline, where reserves allow, is routine year-end work.

Questions

Payroll questions from Merry Oak

I am taking on my first employee. What do I need?

A PAYE employer registration with HMRC (our £49 service, or £99 with the first payroll run set up), a workplace pension scheme, employer's liability insurance, a written statement of employment terms and right-to-work checks. We handle the first two and tell you plainly what to do about the rest.

Can you take over mid-year from another provider or software?

Yes. We need the year-to-date figures for each employee, the last submissions to HMRC and the pension scheme details. The transfer is included in the fee and the first pay run under us reconciles to the previous provider's figures so HMRC sees no gap.

Do I have to offer a workplace pension?

Yes, if you employ anyone aged 22 to State Pension age earning over £10,000 a year. They must be enrolled automatically with minimum contributions of 8% of qualifying earnings, at least 3% from you. Director-only companies with no employment contract are usually exempt. The £99 setup package handles the scheme, the declaration of compliance and the letters.

What salary should a director take?

For 2026/27 many directors take a salary at or just above the National Insurance thresholds so that the year counts towards the State Pension while minimising deductions, and take further income as dividends. The right figure depends on the company's profit and your other income, and our tax planning review covers it in detail.

What about sick pay, maternity and paternity pay?

Statutory Sick Pay, Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Pay are calculated and paid through the payroll when the qualifying conditions are met, and the recoverable portion of parental pay is reclaimed from HMRC through the Employer Payment Summary. All included.

How are starters and leavers handled?

For a starter we need the P45 or a starter checklist, bank details and contract terms; we set them up and report them to HMRC on the first pay run. For a leaver we process final pay, issue the P45 and report the leaving date. Both are included in the monthly fee.

Is payroll in Merry Oak really the same price as elsewhere?

Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Merry Oak 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.

Do you have an office in Merry Oak?

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

Start the conversation from Merry Oak

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