Locum Accountants · South East
Locum accountants in St Albans
Locum accounting for doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other clinicians in St Albans: sole trader locums get books and the tax return for £69 a month, limited company locums full compliance for £95, and annual-only returns are £199. Fixed, published, the same in St Albans as in every other part of England.
from £69/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
Locum Accountants for St Albans
Locum and sessional clinicians in St Albans: GP locums and salaried GPs with extra sessions, hospital doctors with private practice or agency shifts, dental associates and locum dentists, locum pharmacists and optometrists, vets, physiotherapists and other allied health professionals, whether trading as sole traders, through a limited company or both.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- Income from every practice, agency, trust and private engagement reconciled, including statements of earnings and remittances
- Expense review for locums: professional indemnity, GMC/GDC/GPhC fees, exams, courses, equipment, travel between placements
- NHS pension contributions, Type 2 certificates and superannuation reconciled to pay statements
- Sole trader Self Assessment, or limited company accounts, CT600 and payroll, depending on structure
- Annual allowance and tapered annual allowance checks for higher-earning clinicians
- IR35 and off-payroll status considered for engagements through your own company
How it works
Locum Accountants from St Albans, 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 St Albans businesses file with IGI
No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. St Albans clients know the fee for locum 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 St Albans get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to locum accountants.
Online only, UK based. There is no office in St Albans 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 locum accountants: the person who prepared last year's work for your St Albans business prepares this year's, and remembers what was agreed.
Plain English, with the numbers. Every draft for St Albans comes with a short explanation of what the figures mean and what, if anything, you should do about them.
You stay in control of locum accountants: drafts go to St Albans clients first, with the figures explained, and nothing leaves us until you say so.
Local facts
About St Albans
St Albans is in South East, in the AL1 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bernards Heath | 0.6 mi | N |
| Townsend, South East | 0.6 mi | N |
| St. Stephen's | 0.9 mi | SW |
| St Julians, St Albans | 1 mi | SW |
| Sopwell | 1 mi | S |
| Fleetville | 1 mi | E |
| Cunningham | 1 mi | SE |
| New Greens | 1 mi | N |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
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.
Employer National Insurance
Employers pay National Insurance at 15% on each employee's earnings above the £5,000 secondary threshold, following the April 2025 changes. The Employment Allowance offsets up to £10,500 of this for eligible employers, which for a small team often removes the liability entirely, but companies where the director is the only employee do not qualify.
Workplace pensions and auto-enrolment
Every employer must assess its workers for automatic enrolment from the first employee's start date. Those aged 22 to State Pension age earning over £10,000 a year must be enrolled into a qualifying pension with minimum contributions of 8% of qualifying earnings, at least 3% from the employer, and a declaration of compliance made to the Pensions Regulator within five months.
Record keeping
HMRC requires records of all income and expenses, bank statements, invoices and receipts to be kept for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline of the tax year they relate to, and companies must keep records for six years from the end of the accounting period. Digital copies are acceptable. Under Making Tax Digital the records must be kept in compatible software.
Allowable expenses
An expense is allowable against trading profit if it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. Materials, business travel other than ordinary commuting, a proportion of home running costs, software, insurance, professional fees, bank charges and protective clothing qualify. Client entertainment, ordinary clothing, fines and the private share of mixed-use costs do 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
Locum Accountants questions from St Albans
What is the annual-only option?
For £199 we prepare your Self Assessment from the records you keep yourself, including the reconciliation of your engagement income and pension contributions. It suits locums with a small number of regular engagements who are organised. If records are incomplete, the monthly package is usually better value.
Do locum pharmacists and dentists have the same pension issues?
Dental associates and performers pension their NHS earnings through the dental pension arrangements with annual reconciliation statements; locum pharmacists generally have no NHS pension on locum income. Each profession has its own regime and we handle the specific paperwork for yours.
What is the annual allowance and does it affect me?
The annual allowance limits tax-relieved pension growth to £60,000 a year, tapering down to £10,000 for those with adjusted income over £260,000 and threshold income over £200,000. NHS pension growth is measured on the increase in the promised pension, which can be large in a high-earning year. We check it and report any charge or scheme pays election.
What expenses can locums claim?
Professional indemnity insurance, registration fees to the GMC, GDC, GPhC or equivalent, exam fees and courses that maintain skills, medical equipment, professional subscriptions and journals, travel between placements (not ordinary commuting to a regular workplace), a proportion of home costs for administration, and accountancy. We review each category.
Is travel between practices claimable?
For a locum working at many different sites, travel from home to each temporary place of work is generally allowable because there is no permanent workplace. For a regular session at the same practice over a long period, that site may become a permanent workplace and the travel ordinary commuting. We assess each engagement pattern.
How do you handle a mix of NHS employment and locum work?
Employment income is taxed through PAYE and shown on the employment pages; locum income is self-employment on the self-employment pages. The return brings them together and your marginal rate applies to the combined figure. Payments on account are often triggered by locum income on top of employment. We reconcile all sources.
Which deadlines matter most for locum accountants?
The next four dates that apply to locum accountants are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For St Albans 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 St Albans?
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 locum accountants. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most St Albans clients are set up within a day.
Ready to fix your fee in St Albans?
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.