Startup Accountants · South East
Startup accountants in Welwyn Garden City
If you are starting a company in Welwyn Garden City, the accounting decisions you make in the first three months, share structure, VAT registration timing, how founders are paid, whether to seek SEIS assurance, shape the next three years. We get them right for startups across South East, online, for a monthly fee agreed before you join.
from £59/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
- Confirmation statement due within 14 days of your review date, at least once every 12 months
Who this is for
Startup Accountants for Welwyn Garden City
New and early-stage companies in Welwyn Garden City: founders incorporating for the first time, technology and product startups preparing to raise seed investment, service businesses moving from side project to full time, two or three co-founders who need the equity and payroll structured properly, and companies in their first two years who set up alone and want it done properly now.
What is included
Everything inside the fixed fee
- Company formation and HMRC registrations in the Launch package, or a review of what has already been set up
- Cloud bookkeeping configured for a growing business, with bank feeds and expense capture from day one
- Annual accounts and Corporation Tax return, with first-period and long-period rules handled
- VAT registration timing advised and quarterly returns run in the Grow and Scale packages
- Payroll for founders and first hires, with auto-enrolment, in the Scale package
- SEIS and EIS advance assurance applications prepared for founders raising investment
How it works
Startup Accountants from Welwyn Garden City, 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
The IGI way of working, in Welwyn Garden City
One fixed fee for startup accountants in Welwyn Garden City, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.
Nothing for Welwyn Garden City is left to the last week. Each deadline relevant to startup accountants is tracked from the day you join, with the next four shown on every page we send you.
No appointments, no travel across South East, no parking. Everything for startup accountants in Welwyn Garden City happens online, with a real person on the other end during UK working hours.
You get one contact for startup accountants, not a queue. Welwyn Garden City clients message the same person throughout and get an answer in working hours, usually within a few hours.
The output for Welwyn Garden City 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 startup accountants.
Approval before filing is a rule, not a courtesy. For startup accountants in Welwyn Garden City, every submission to HMRC or Companies House follows your written go-ahead.
Local facts
About Welwyn Garden City
Welwyn Garden City is in South East, in the AL8 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sherrardspark | 0.3 mi | N |
| Handside | 0.5 mi | SW |
| Peartree | 0.6 mi | SE |
| Haldens | 0.8 mi | NE |
| Digswell Park | 1.0 mi | N |
| Ayot Green | 1 mi | NW |
| Lemsford | 1 mi | SW |
| Panshanger | 1 mi | E |
Worth knowing
Rules that come up in this work
Switching accountants
The main reasons people switch accountant are surprise invoices, missed deadlines and not understanding what they are being told. Switching involves a clearance letter between the firms, a transfer of records and agent authorisations, and a short handover of the current position. It takes about two weeks and should cost nothing extra.
Closing a company
Striking off a company is cheap but must be done in order: stop trading, file the final accounts and CT600, pay the tax, close VAT and PAYE, distribute the remaining assets, close the bank account, then apply. Anything left in the company at dissolution passes to the Crown. Distributions up to £25,000 are taxed as capital gains; above that a formal liquidation is usually needed to keep capital treatment.
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.
Workplace pensions and auto-enrolment
Auto-enrolment duties begin the day you take on your first employee, not when the Pensions Regulator writes to you. Eligible staff must be enrolled, contributions paid every pay period and re-enrolment carried out every three years. Director-only companies without employment contracts are usually exempt. Fines for non-compliance are fixed and escalating.
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.
Crypto records and reporting
Crypto tax splits into capital gains on disposals and income on rewards, with different rates and different reporting. The £3,000 annual exempt amount and the 18% and 24% rates apply to gains; staking, mining and airdrop income is taxed at marginal income tax rates. HMRC's nudge letters to holders have increased sharply, and a voluntary disclosure before one arrives is treated far more leniently.
Questions
Startup Accountants questions from Welwyn Garden City
Can I switch to you from another accountant mid-year?
Yes. We request your records and professional clearance from the previous firm, pick up the bookkeeping where they left off and take over the filings. There is no charge for the switch and the first month's fee is the same as any other.
What if the startup fails?
Then the company needs to be closed properly: final accounts, final CT600, deregistration from VAT and PAYE, and a strike-off application or, if there are debts it cannot pay, a formal insolvency process. Our strike-off service with final accounts is from £349. SEIS investors can claim loss relief, which softens their outcome.
Do I need a separate business bank account?
Legally the company must have its own account because it is a separate person from you; using a personal account mixes funds and creates director's loan problems. Digital business banks open accounts quickly for new companies, and we connect the feed to your software as part of setup.
What do investors expect to see in the accounts?
Clean, current bookkeeping; a cap table that matches Companies House; founder payments properly documented; VAT and PAYE up to date; and management accounts showing runway. Due diligence on a seed round routinely finds undocumented director's loans and unfiled confirmation statements, both of which cost time at exactly the wrong moment.
Should I register for VAT before I have to?
If your customers are VAT-registered businesses, early voluntary registration lets you reclaim VAT on setup costs with no real cost to customers. If you sell to consumers, registration adds 20% to your price or cuts your margin, so waiting until the £90,000 threshold is usually better. We model it for your business.
How should co-founders be paid?
Early on, often not at all, with equity as the reward. Once the company can afford it, a modest salary through payroll keeps National Insurance records intact and is deductible. Dividends require distributable profits, which loss-making startups do not have. Director's loans are a trap. We set the structure to suit the cash position.
Do you have an office in Welwyn Garden City?
No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve Welwyn Garden City 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 startup accountants is the same in Welwyn Garden City as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.
Is startup accountants in Welwyn Garden City really the same price as elsewhere?
Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Welwyn Garden City 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.
Ready to fix your fee in Welwyn Garden City?
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.