Accounting services in the UK

A lot of rules and regulations exist in the United Kingdom that govern the existence and activity of any UK organisation. In the majority of cases English businesses are subject to financial and tax reporting, including VAT reports, payroll and audit requirements. Please find below more details on when and what must be done.

Our specialists will be happy to consult you on the current regulations and taxes for businesses, and help you with the issues listed below. We will prepare your financial and tax reports, manage your bookkeeping and accounting and help you register for payroll and value-added tax. We will assist with conducting audit, if needed, as well as prepare and file VAT reports.

Annual accounts

Current legislation requires all businesses to prepare and submit their financial accounts, except for Scottish partnerships that don’t have to do it if they are not active in the United Kingdom. However, SLPs still need to submit their tax reports, even zero ones.

Financial accounts shall be submitted to the Companies House not later than 9 months from the end of the company’s financial year. The same deadline applies to the payment of Corporation Tax. Tax reports shall be filed with the HMRC not later than 12 months from the end of the company’s financial year.

Our accountants will put together financial and tax reports for your firm and assist with tax optimisation.

Audit

Small businesses in England are not normally asked to conduct audits. Pursuant to the Companies Act 2006, a company qualifies as small if it meets the following conditions:

In a year that started before the 1st of January 2016, in which it satisfies two or more of the following requirements:

Turnover less than £6.5 million
Balance sheet total not more than £3.26 million
Number of people employed not more than 50

In a year, that started after the 1st of January 2016, in which it meets two or more of the following criteria:

Turnover not more than £10.2 million
Balance sheet total less than £5.1 million
Number of employees not more than 50

Besides, some charity businesses and some subsidiaries that are part of a group are exempt from audit. Please get in touch with our specialists for more details.

There are sometimes cases when an organisation is subject to an audit for other reasons, for example when it is subject to public sector audit, when it is requested to do so or for the purpose of procuring finances from a bank. Our specialists will advise whether your business needs to be audited and help you to do it.

VAT reports

A business must register for value-added tax if its VAT-taxable turnover is more than £85,000 (so called threshold) in a 12-month period. You can also register any time before reaching this threshold if your goods or services are not ‘out of scope’.

You usually submit VAT returns every 3 months. You have 1 month and 7 days from the end of the accounting period to prepare and submit a quarterly report.

A registered business has certain obligations:

Charge the correct VAT on your clients
Pay required amount of tax to the HMRC
Submit reports
Keep VAT records in order

Our experts will register your company for value-added tax, prepare and file your VAT returns.

Payroll and PAYE registration

All UK businesses that pay salary to their employees in any form must be registered with the tax authorities as an employer to operate PAYE. This is an online service that allows to:

Send online payroll reports to HMRC
Access tax codes and notices about your employees
Appeal a penalty
Get alerts from tax authorities when you report late or don’t send the right reports

You must register for PAYE before the first payday. It can take up to 6 weeks. You can’t register more than 2 months before you start paying people.

Upon registration, an employer must file online reports on time and pay taxes on their employees and make National Insurance contributions for themselves by the 22nd (or the 19th if paying by post) of the month succeeding the reporting one.

Please note: Even when a firm has only one director and they are on payroll (no dividends), the company still has to be registered as an employer. Besides, if you have household staff (gardener, driver, baby-sitter, etc.) and you pay them, you also have to be registered with the HMRC as an employer and use payroll system.

Specialists at Imperial & Legal will take care of all the payroll issues and prepare pay slips for your employees.