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20 October 2023
Accountancy fees can vary significantly depending on the size of your business, the scale of your activities, the services you require and the quality of your records.
Small businesses
A small business may be anything from a self-employed hairdresser to a limited company with up to 50 employees. Accounting for these types of businesses usually includes a range of services delivered as a package, this could include:
The above core package is usually delivered for a fixed monthly fee.
For smaller businesses, this monthly fee can be as low as £60 + VAT or as high as £600 + VAT depending on things such as turnover and level of service. Businesses with more employees and higher turnover can expect to pay more.
Large businesses
A large business will have a legal requirement to have its financial statements audited, the requirements for audit exemption can be found here. Companies will expect to pay more for an audited set of accounts due to the time it takes, and the risk involved.
Throughout the industry there has been an increase in audit costs since the 2016 Audit Regulation and Directive announced the issues and failures within the upper end of the audit industry. This meant a lot of long-term contracts were put out to tender resulting in larger firms increasing their fees to make up for their smaller client base.
Self-assessment tax returns
We will charge a one-off fee for an annual self-assessment tax return, which typically starts from £250 + VAT, depending on the complexity and scope of your finances. The more sources of income you have, the higher the fee is likely to be as this will take us greater time. Fees from £250 + VAT would generally cover basic self-assessment services, while more complex tax returns would require more work and so involve a higher fee.
Other fees
Other fees to consider are those for additional services, such as tax planning and business planning advice. These ad hoc and bespoke services are usually charged by the hour.
What affects price?
As mentioned above price can be affected by the size of the business, turnover and number of employees. Other factors to consider are:
Something else to consider . . . Why you may not want a cheap accounts or tax service?
In a nutshell, you can’t have the best services for next to nothing, so there needs to be a compromise which is often one of the following three elements of service:
For more information on how we can help please contact us.
