Contractor accountants

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.

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.

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.

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.

It can still be worth it if you have other outside-IR35 work, but for a single inside-IR35 engagement an umbrella company or direct PAYE is often simpler and cheaper. We run the comparison for your specific numbers and tell you honestly, even if the answer is that you do not need us for that contract.

For engagements outside IR35, travel to a client site that is a temporary workplace is claimable, subject to the 24-month rule: once you know an engagement will exceed 24 months at the same site, it stops being temporary. Subsistence follows the travel. Inside-IR35 engagements lose these claims. We check each engagement.

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.

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.

Yes, and it is one of the most efficient ways to extract value. Employer pension contributions are deductible for Corporation Tax, free of National Insurance and not taxed on you, up to the £60,000 annual allowance (tapered for very high earners). We include pension planning in the Complete package's annual call.

The company continues and so do the filings, but we can reduce the salary and pause dividends. If you expect a long gap we discuss whether to keep the company trading, make it dormant or close it. The monthly fee continues while the company is active because the compliance does, but we review it with you if circumstances change.

Most client contracts require professional indemnity and public liability cover, and employer's liability is a legal requirement if the company employs anyone other than the director. Insurance is not something we sell, but we tell you what your contracts require and the premiums are deductible for Corporation Tax.

With the company formation and the first contract review. Our £99 formation-plus-registrations package sets up the company with Corporation Tax and PAYE registered; the IR35 review of your first engagement decides how the income will be taxed. Join the Essential package from the month you start invoicing.