Accounting

E-commerce Accountants · East London

E-commerce accountants in Upton Park

If your Upton Park 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 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 Upton Park

Online sellers in Upton Park: 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 Upton Park, 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

The IGI way of working, in Upton Park

No hourly rate and no surprise invoice. Upton Park 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 Upton Park get reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days before each date that applies to e-commerce accountants.

We serve Upton Park 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 Upton Park 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 Upton Park 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 Upton Park clients first, with the figures explained, and nothing leaves us until you say so.

Local facts

About Upton Park

Upton Park is in East London, within Newham, in the E13 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
Newham, East London0.4 miSW
Green Street West0.4 miNW
Boleyn0.4 miSE
Barking Road0.5 miS
Green Street East0.5 miN
Plaistow North0.5 miSW
Plashet0.7 miNE
Green Street, Newham0.7 miN

Worth knowing

Rules that come up in this work

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.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

The biggest change to Self Assessment in a generation is Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, now live for higher-earning sole traders and landlords and arriving for the rest in stages. Quarterly updates are due by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, built from digital records. The practical consequence is that spreadsheet-and-shoebox bookkeeping is ending for anyone above the threshold.

The Self Assessment calendar

The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. Anyone new to Self Assessment must register by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which their untaxed income began. The online return and the balancing payment are due by 31 January, with a second payment on account on 31 July where they apply. Paper returns have an earlier deadline of 31 October and are rarely sensible.

Payments on account

Payments on account catch out most people in their second year of self-employment. HMRC assumes next year's tax will match this year's and collects half in January and half in July, in advance, on top of the balancing payment. If profits are dropping you can apply to reduce them, but reducing them too far attracts interest. We calculate the right figure rather than guessing.

Salary versus dividends

The salary-and-dividend split is the central planning decision for an owner-managed company. Salary costs employer National Insurance above £5,000 but is deductible; dividends are not deductible but attract lower personal rates and no National Insurance. The optimum changes each April with the thresholds and depends on the director's other income, so it should be set deliberately every year.

Director's loan accounts

A director's loan account records money moving between a director and the company that is not salary or dividend. If the director owes the company money nine months and one day after the year end, the company pays section 455 tax at 35.75% of the balance, refundable only when the loan is repaid. Loans over £10,000 are also a benefit in kind unless interest is charged at HMRC's official rate.

The VAT registration threshold

The £90,000 VAT threshold is measured over any twelve consecutive months, which is why a strong quarter can tip a business over unexpectedly. Registration must follow within thirty days of the end of the month the threshold was crossed. Below the threshold, voluntary registration is worth considering when customers are VAT-registered businesses and costs carry VAT.

Questions

E-commerce Accountants questions from Upton Park

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 Upton Park?

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

Is e-commerce accountants in Upton Park really the same price as elsewhere?

Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Upton Park 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 Upton Park, 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