Accounting

E-commerce Accountants · South East London

E-commerce accountants in Penge and Cator

If your Penge and Cator business sells through marketplaces, your own store or both, the hard part is not the bookkeeping, it is the VAT: when the marketplace accounts for it, when you do, how imports are treated, what happens with EU customers. We handle this for sellers across South East London and the £149 health check finds the errors before HMRC does.

from £79/mo · fixed, per month

Next deadlines

  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
  • Online Self Assessment filing deadline and balancing payment due

Who this is for

E-commerce Accountants for Penge and Cator

Online sellers in Penge and Cator: marketplace traders on one or several platforms, brands selling through their own store, dropshippers, subscription box businesses, sellers importing stock from overseas, UK sellers with EU or international customers, and businesses approaching or past the £90,000 VAT threshold who need the registration and returns handled correctly.

What is included

Everything inside the fixed fee

  • Sales, fees, refunds and payouts reconciled per channel from marketplace and payment-processor reports
  • VAT handled correctly for UK sales, marketplace-collected VAT, imports, EU and overseas customers
  • Inventory accounting with cost of sales and stock valuation in the top package
  • Cloud software integrated with your channels so transactions post automatically
  • Annual accounts and Corporation Tax or Self Assessment, with the figures tying back to channel reports
  • Marketplace VAT health check: a one-off review of your registrations and settings against the rules

How it works

E-commerce Accountants from Penge and Cator, step by step

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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 Penge and Cator businesses file with IGI

No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Penge and Cator clients know the fee for e-commerce 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 Penge and Cator get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to e-commerce accountants.

We serve Penge and Cator 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 e-commerce accountants.

A named person handles your e-commerce accountants from Penge and Cator and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.

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

You stay in control of e-commerce accountants: drafts go to Penge and Cator clients first, with the figures explained, and nothing leaves us until you say so.

Local facts

About Penge and Cator

Penge and Cator is in South East London, within Bromley, in the SE20 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.

Nearby places we also serve for e-commerce accountants
PlaceDistanceDirection
Penge0.2 miSW
New Beckenham0.6 miNE
Anerley0.7 miSW
Clock House0.8 miS
Sydenham, Lewisham0.8 miN
Lower Sydenham0.9 miNE
Beckenham1.0 miSE
Crystal Palace1 miW

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

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.

Crypto records and reporting

Most crypto holders have taxable events they do not recognise, because every swap is a disposal even when no pounds change hands. The computation requires the complete transaction history from every exchange and wallet, pooled by asset with HMRC's matching rules applied. Exchange-generated tax reports are frequently wrong because they cannot see transfers between a user's own wallets.

The 60-day property CGT return

Since April 2020 a gain on UK residential property must be reported and the tax paid within 60 days of completion through HMRC's dedicated service, separately from the annual return. Non-residents must report all UK land disposals in the same window whether or not tax is due. Getting the computation right first time matters because the figure is then carried into the Self Assessment.

Record keeping

Record keeping is a legal obligation with a penalty of up to £3,000 for failure, but its real value is in making every other filing cheaper and more defensible. Keep invoices, receipts, bank statements, mileage logs and any HMRC correspondence, digitally if you like, for five years after the relevant filing deadline for individuals and six years for companies and VAT.

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.

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.

Questions

E-commerce Accountants questions from Penge and Cator

Do I need to register for VAT if the marketplace collects it?

Marketplace-collected VAT does not count towards your registration threshold, but your other sales do. Many sellers have a mix and cross the £90,000 threshold without realising. We monitor your rolling 12-month taxable turnover monthly and tell you when registration is approaching.

Should I trade as a sole trader or a company?

Many sellers start as sole traders and incorporate as profits grow. A company protects personal assets from supplier and platform disputes, and can be more tax efficient at higher profits, but adds compliance. Marketplaces also treat business accounts differently. We run the comparison for your numbers.

What is the marketplace VAT health check?

A one-off £149 review of your VAT registration, your marketplace tax settings, your treatment of imports and overseas sales, and a sample of recent returns against the rules. It produces a written report of errors found and what to do about them. Most sellers who have set things up themselves have at least one.

Can you reconcile my payment processor as well as the marketplace?

Yes. Card processors and payment gateways on your own store are integrated so that gross sales, fees and payouts post and reconcile automatically. The fee treatment, including VAT on processor fees, is configured at setup, which is where most self-built integrations go wrong.

I sell to EU customers. What VAT applies?

Since 2021 sales of goods to EU consumers are exports from the UK, zero-rated here, with EU VAT due in the customer's country. The EU's Import One Stop Shop lets you account for consignments under €150 through one registration. Above that, local registration or the customer paying on delivery. We advise on the right route for your volumes.

When do I need the inventory package?

When you hold meaningful stock. Without inventory accounting, the cost of goods purchased is expensed when bought, which distorts profit between periods and misstates the balance sheet. The £179 package tracks stock, calculates cost of sales and values closing stock, which lenders, investors and HMRC all expect from a stock-holding business.

Do you have an office in Penge and Cator?

No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve Penge and Cator 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 e-commerce accountants is the same in Penge and Cator as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.

Is e-commerce accountants in Penge and Cator really the same price as elsewhere?

Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Penge and Cator 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.

One message from Penge and Cator, one fixed price

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