E-commerce Accountants · East London
E-commerce accountants in Whalebone
If your Whalebone 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 Whalebone
Online sellers in Whalebone: 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 Whalebone, 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 Whalebone
The price for e-commerce accountants is published on this page and is what a client in Whalebone pays. We confirm it in writing first, and the invoice matches the quote.
Deadline-first: the dates that matter for e-commerce accountants are shown at the top of this page, diarised for every Whalebone client and chased before they arrive.
Online only, UK based. There is no office in Whalebone 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 e-commerce accountants: the person who prepared last year's work for your Whalebone business prepares this year's, and remembers what was agreed.
The output for Whalebone 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 e-commerce accountants.
Approval before filing is a rule, not a courtesy. For e-commerce accountants in Whalebone, every submission to HMRC or Companies House follows your written go-ahead.
Local facts
About Whalebone
Whalebone is in East London, within Barking and Dagenham, in the RM8 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Becontree Heath | 0.5 mi | SE |
| Chadwell Heath | 0.6 mi | W |
| Valence | 0.7 mi | SW |
| Heath, Barking and Dagenham | 0.9 mi | SE |
| Chadwell, Redbridge | 1.0 mi | NW |
| Rush Green, Havering | 1 mi | E |
| Goodmayes | 1 mi | W |
| Marks Gate | 1 mi | N |
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
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax began in April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, extends to those over £30,000 in April 2027 and is planned for £20,000 in April 2028. It requires digital records in compatible software and four quarterly updates to HMRC each year, with a final declaration replacing the traditional return. Payment dates are unchanged.
The Self Assessment calendar
Self Assessment runs on a fixed annual cycle. Registration by 5 October following the tax year, online filing and payment by 31 January, and a second instalment on 31 July for those making payments on account. The penalties for lateness are automatic and escalate monthly, which is why we file early and chase approvals well before the window closes.
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.
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
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.
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.
Questions
E-commerce Accountants questions from Whalebone
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 Whalebone?
No. IGI Accounting is an online-only firm. We serve Whalebone 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 Whalebone as anywhere else in the country, and why there is nothing to visit and nothing to print.
Is e-commerce accountants in Whalebone really the same price as elsewhere?
Yes. The fee published on this page is what a client in Whalebone 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.
Let us take the deadlines off your plate in Whalebone
Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.