Are you a freelancer, locum, or trade professional setup as a sole trader? Our award-winning team manages your complete self assessment tax return, tracks your expenses, and identifies critical tax relief to maximize your take-home pay.
What is included
If you are not sure which applies, ring us and we will tell you honestly — including if you do not need us.
Preparation and final submission of your annual self-assessment before the rigid January 31st deadline.
Full consolidation of your business' financial performance using the provided receipts and digital ledgers.
If your sole trader turnover exceeds the strict £90,000 threshold, we manage your mandatory quarterly digital VAT registration and filings.
Included software subscriptions to award-winning platforms like Xero or QuickBooks Online for effortless digital expense tracking.
We audit your outgoings to ensure you claim all legally allowable business expenses, actively reducing your taxable profit margin.
Direct queries via phone or email answered rapidly by your dedicated manager, helping you make immediate financial decisions.
A short conversation, or the online form if you would rather. We need enough to quote properly and nothing more.
Sent the same working day, in writing, with what is included spelled out. No hourly billing and no surprises later.
We deal with HMRC and Companies House, chase the information we need, and tell you what is due before it is due.
Send a receipt from your phone when you have one. Ask us anything through the year at no extra cost.
Being a sole trader is the simplest way to work for yourself and for many people it stays the right answer for years. You register with HMRC, keep a record of what comes in and what goes out, and file one self assessment return a year. There is no Companies House, no corporation tax and no separate legal entity — your business profit is simply your income.
The part that catches people out is payments on account. Once your tax bill passes a modest threshold, HMRC asks for next year's tax in two instalments, in January and July, on top of the balance for the year just gone. The first January after a good year can therefore bring a demand around one and a half times the size of the bill you were expecting. It is not a penalty and it is not a mistake; it is the system moving you onto payment in advance. Knowing about it in October is a very different experience from discovering it in January.
What you can deduct is broader than most people claim and narrower than some assume. Genuine business costs, the business proportion of a vehicle or a phone, use of home as an office either at the flat monthly rate or on an apportioned basis, tools, training that maintains rather than creates a skill, and professional fees. Clothing, ordinary commuting and anything with significant private use are the recurring disappointments.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is the substantial change facing sole traders. Above the income threshold you move from one annual return to quarterly updates submitted from compatible software, plus a final declaration. It is a genuine change of habit for anyone used to handing over a carrier bag once a year, and it works far better if the software is set up properly in advance rather than in the week before a deadline.
The question we are asked most often is when to incorporate. It is a calculation rather than a threshold, and it turns on your profit, how much you actually need to draw for yourself, whether you are about to take on staff or borrow, and how much you value the limited liability. The dividend rate rise in April 2026 moved the answer, and a fair number of people who would have incorporated two years ago are better off as they are. We run both scenarios and show you the figures rather than pushing you one way.
Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance both sit on top of income tax on your profits, and voluntary Class 2 contributions can be worth paying even when profits are low, because they protect a qualifying year towards the state pension. Skipping them to save a small amount now can cost considerably more later.
Our sole trader work is a fixed fee agreed before we start, covering the return, the tax calculation and the advice that goes with it. We tell you what you owe and when, with enough notice to do something about it.
An accountant for sole traders manages the unique tax mechanisms assigned to self-employed individuals. Unlike corporations, sole traders pay Income Tax and Class 2 / Class 4 National Insurance directly on business profits. We prepare the accounts, calculate the exact statutory liabilities, and securely submit your Self Assessment directly to HMRC.
A fixed monthly fee, agreed before we start. Tell us about the business and we will send a quote the same working day — and the conversation costs nothing either way.