Contractor Accountants · Central London
Contractor accountants in St John's Wood
Contracting through a company from St John's Wood means a stack of filings that have to agree with each other and a salary-and-dividend split that has to be defensible. We run the whole cycle online for a fixed monthly fee, review your contracts for IR35 and make sure the money you take out is documented properly. No surprises at year end.
from £75/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
Contractor Accountants for St John's Wood
Contractors and interim professionals in St John's Wood working through their own limited company: IT and software contractors, engineers, project managers, interim finance staff, consultants, medical and allied health locums who have incorporated, and permanent employees about to go contracting who need the company set up and the first engagement reviewed.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- Statutory accounts and Corporation Tax return prepared and filed each year
- Director payroll run monthly with RTI submissions and the salary set at the efficient level
- Dividend vouchers and board minutes for every distribution, with the available reserves checked first
- Quarterly VAT returns and bookkeeping in the Plus and Complete packages
- Director's Self Assessment and an annual planning call in the Complete package
- IR35 status reviews of your contracts and working practices, with a written opinion
How it works
Contractor Accountants from St John's Wood, step by step
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.
Agree the price
The fee is confirmed in writing. There is no hourly billing and nothing added for questions during the work.
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.
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
What you get in St John's Wood
The price for contractor accountants is published on this page and is what a client in St John's Wood pays. We confirm it in writing first, and the invoice matches the quote.
Nothing for St John's Wood is left to the last week. Each deadline relevant to contractor accountants is tracked from the day you join, with the next four shown on every page we send you.
No appointments, no travel across Central London, no parking. Everything for contractor accountants in St John's Wood happens online, with a real person on the other end during UK working hours.
A named person handles your contractor accountants from St John's Wood and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.
The output for St John's Wood clients is never just a form. It is the form, a one-page summary of what it says, and a note of the decisions it points to for contractor accountants.
Nothing is filed for St John's Wood 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 St John's Wood
St John's Wood is in Central London, within Westminster, in the NW8 postcode district, 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.
| Place | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Abbey Road | 0.3 mi | NW |
| Maida Vale | 0.5 mi | W |
| Church Street, Westminster | 0.6 mi | S |
| Lisson Grove | 0.6 mi | SE |
| Kingsland, Camden | 0.6 mi | NE |
| South Hampstead | 0.7 mi | N |
| Primrose Hill, Camden | 0.7 mi | NE |
| Little Venice | 0.8 mi | SW |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
CIS deductions
The Construction Industry Scheme affects both sides of a construction payment. Contractors must verify subcontractors, deduct the right amount, issue statements and file monthly, with penalties from £100 for each late return. Subcontractors suffer deductions on turnover and recover the excess at the year end. Limited company subcontractors offset deductions against PAYE monthly instead.
Confirmation statements and identity verification
Every company must file a confirmation statement at least once a year, within fourteen days of its review date, with a £50 Companies House fee. Since November 2025 directors and people with significant control must also verify their identity with Companies House, and the confirmation statement is where existing officers confirm they have done so during the transition year.
Corporation Tax rates and marginal relief
Companies pay Corporation Tax at 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% on profits over £250,000. Between those figures marginal relief applies, producing an effective rate that rises gradually and a marginal rate of 26.5% on each pound in the band. The thresholds are divided by the number of associated companies, so a director with two companies has thresholds of £25,000 and £125,000 for each.
The VAT registration threshold
Watching the rolling twelve-month turnover figure is one of the quiet jobs of monthly bookkeeping, because the £90,000 VAT threshold arrives silently. Crossing it brings quarterly returns, Making Tax Digital software and a decision about schemes. Crossing it late brings a bill for VAT you could not recover from customers and a penalty for failing to notify.
Director's loan accounts
The most common tax problem in owner-managed companies is an overdrawn director's loan account: drawings taken during the year that were never declared as dividends or salary. The company faces a 35.75% charge on the balance outstanding nine months after the year end, and the director may have a benefit in kind. We review the account before every year end to clear it properly.
Salary versus dividends
Paying yourself from a company involves two routes with different tax treatment. Salary through payroll is a company expense and builds a National Insurance record; dividends come from post-tax profit at lower personal rates. Undocumented drawings that are neither become director's loans, with a 35.75% section 455 charge if not repaid within nine months of the year end.
Payments on account
A common surprise in Self Assessment is the January payment that is far larger than expected. That is the balancing payment for the year just ended plus the first payment on account for the year ahead, which HMRC sets at half of the bill just calculated. We put the figure in your hands months ahead and tell you how to adjust it legitimately when circumstances change.
Questions
Contractor Accountants questions from St John's Wood
What is IR35 and does it affect me?
IR35 asks whether, but for the company, you would be an employee of your client. If a contract is inside IR35 the income is taxed like employment. Since 2021 medium and large private-sector clients make the determination and deduct tax at source; for small clients the contractor decides. We review contracts and working practices and give a written opinion for £99.
How should I pay myself from the company?
The usual approach is a salary around the National Insurance thresholds, which keeps your State Pension record intact and is deductible for Corporation Tax, with the rest as dividends taxed at the dividend rates after the £500 allowance. The exact split depends on your other income and the company's profit, and we set it at the start of each tax year.
What do Plus and Complete add?
Plus at £105 adds quarterly VAT returns and monthly bookkeeping from your bank feed, so the records are kept for you. Complete at £125 adds the director's Self Assessment return and an annual tax planning call covering salary, dividends, pension and the year ahead. Most contractors inside VAT choose Plus or Complete.
What is in the £75 Essential package?
Annual statutory accounts and CT600 filed with Companies House and HMRC, monthly director payroll with RTI submissions, dividend vouchers and minutes, the confirmation statement filed (Companies House £50 fee separate), and deadline tracking. It suits contractors outside VAT or who prefer to do their own VAT and bookkeeping.
What is the flat rate VAT scheme and should I use it?
For most contractors with low costs the limited-cost-trader rate of 16.5% removes any advantage of the flat rate scheme, and the standard scheme reclaiming input VAT on equipment and software is better. Contractors with significant qualifying costs may differ. We calculate both at registration and review annually.
How are dividends documented?
Each dividend needs a board minute approving it and a dividend voucher recording the date, amount and shareholder. The company must have sufficient distributable profits after tax at the time. We check the reserves before each dividend, produce the paperwork and keep it on file, because undocumented dividends are reclassified by HMRC as salary or loans.
How do I get started from St John's Wood?
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 contractor accountants. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most St John's Wood clients are set up within a day.
Which deadlines matter most for contractor accountants?
The next four dates that apply to contractor accountants are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For St John's Wood 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.
Fixed fees, filed on time, for St John's Wood
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.