Questions we get asked

Yes. iTSA Digital Tax Ltd is a member firm of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, supervised by the ICAEW for anti-money laundering, and registered to carry out audit work. Director Sajid Aman is a Fellow of the ICAEW (FCA).

Self Assessment returns start at £149, limited company accounts at £599 a year, bookkeeping at £95 a month, payroll at £25 a month, VAT at £45 a month and Making Tax Digital at £35 a month. Every fee is fixed and agreed in writing before work starts.

No. Every engagement is a fixed fee agreed before work begins. Hourly billing penalises you for asking questions, which is the opposite of what an accountant should encourage.

Yes, and it costs you nothing. We write to them for professional clearance and your records, handle the HMRC agent authorisations and any Companies House changes. It takes two to three weeks and you barely have to do anything.

No. Around half our clients work with us entirely online by phone, video and email. If you are local to Knowle, Solihull, Dorridge or Birmingham and would rather meet in person, you are very welcome.

Our office is in Knowle, Solihull. We meet clients in person across Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry and Warwickshire, and work online with clients across the whole United Kingdom.

Within one working day, every time. Our hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and evening or weekend calls can be arranged by appointment.

Yes. We carry professional indemnity insurance as required by ICAEW regulations, and we are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under registration ZC111024.

Turnover. Qualifying income is gross self-employment income plus gross property income before any expenses. Profit is irrelevant to the test.

Yes. Self-employment and property income are combined to work out whether you cross the threshold.

Once you are in MTD you generally stay in. You can leave only if your qualifying income falls below the threshold for three consecutive years.

No. PAYE employment income, dividends, interest and pensions are excluded from the qualifying income test.

By the 7th of the month following each quarter end: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May.

No. Payment dates are unchanged, 31 January for the balancing payment and payments on account on 31 January and 31 July.

Yes, you can elect for quarters ending 30 June, 30 September, 31 December and 31 March. The election must be made before the first update of the tax year.

You file a final declaration by 31 January. It replaces the Self Assessment return and brings in all your other income and year-end adjustments.

Cumulative totals of income and expenses by category for each business or property source. No adjustments, reliefs or tax calculation.

One per income source per quarter. A sole trader with one business submits four a year. A sole trader who also lets property submits eight.

Correct it in the following quarter. Updates are cumulative, so the next submission overwrites the running total. There is no penalty for a corrected figure.

No. It ignores capital allowances, reliefs, other income and your full personal allowance position. Treat it as a very rough indicator only.

One penalty point. No fine until you reach four points, at which stage you pay £200, and £200 for each further late submission.

Yes, after 24 months, provided you have not hit the threshold. If you have been fined, you must complete 12 months of full compliance and file everything outstanding before points are cleared.

It started in April 2026 for people with qualifying income above £50,000. It extends to income above £30,000 in April 2027, and above £20,000 in April 2028.

Your gross self-employment turnover plus your gross property income, before expenses. It is turnover, not profit. This catches a lot of people out. Employment income, dividends and savings interest do not count towards the threshold.

Our Self Assessment returns start at £149 for a straightforward return. More involved returns, multiple properties, capital gains, foreign income, are quoted individually, always as a fixed fee agreed in writing first.

Online returns and payment are both due by 31 January following the end of the tax year. Paper returns are due by 31 October. The 2026/27 tax year return is due by 31 January 2028.

Our limited company accounts start at £599 a year for a small company, including the Corporation Tax return and Companies House filing. Companies with payroll, VAT or higher transaction volumes are quoted individually.

Nine months after your accounting year end for Companies House. Corporation Tax is payable nine months and one day after year end, and the CT600 return is due twelve months after.

The small profits rate is 19% on profits up to £50,000. The main rate is 25% on profits above £250,000. Between the two, marginal relief tapers the rate upwards.

Payment is due nine months and one day after your accounting period ends. The CT600 return is due twelve months after. So the payment comes before the return: a common and expensive surprise.

You must register once taxable turnover exceeds £90,000 in any rolling 12-month period, or if you expect to exceed it in the next 30 days alone. You can register voluntarily below that, which often makes sense if your customers are VAT registered.

Usually quarterly, due one calendar month and seven days after the quarter end. So a quarter ending 31 March is due by 7 May.

From £25 a month for the payroll itself, plus £4 per payslip. A five-person payroll is therefore £45 a month. Auto-enrolment administration is included.

If you take a salary, yes. Most director-only companies run a single annual or monthly payroll at the National Insurance threshold to preserve the state pension record without paying contributions.

From £95 a month. The price depends on transaction volume and whether you are VAT registered, we quote a fixed monthly fee after looking at a few months of your bank statements.

Xero for most businesses, FreeAgent for sole traders and contractors, QuickBooks if you want the cheapest compliant option, Sage if you need stronger payroll. We are certified on all four and will tell you honestly which suits you.

When it exceeds two of these three for two consecutive years: turnover over £15 million, balance sheet total over £7.5 million, or more than 50 employees. Some companies also need one because of their articles, their shareholders, their sector regulator or their funding agreements.

Yes. Smaller companies often choose an audit because a bank, investor, grant body or prospective buyer wants the assurance. It can also be required if shareholders holding 10% or more demand one.

Yes, if gross rental income plus any self-employment income exceeds £50,000 you are already in from April 2026, and above £30,000 you join in April 2027. Note it is gross rent before expenses or mortgage interest, which catches many landlords by surprise.

Repairs and maintenance, letting agent fees, insurance, ground rent and service charges, council tax and utilities where you pay them, professional fees, travel to the property, and replacement of domestic items. Mortgage interest is not an expense. It is a 20% tax credit instead.

For residential property, 18% for basic-rate taxpayers and 24% for higher-rate. For other assets, 18% and 24% respectively. Business Asset Disposal Relief charges 14% on qualifying business disposals up to a £1 million lifetime limit.

The annual exempt amount is £3,000 per person. Spouses and civil partners each have their own, so transferring an asset into joint names before sale can double it.

Our formation package is £99 one-off, including the Companies House fee, incorporation, share structure and HMRC registrations. Companies House alone charges £50 if you do it yourself.

It depends far more on whether you need to draw all the profit than on how much you make. If you spend everything you earn, a sole trader is usually slightly ahead at any level since the 2024 National Insurance cuts. If you can leave profit in the business, a company wins clearly. Limited liability and client expectations often matter more than either. We model both with your figures.

Compliance work reports the past to HMRC and Companies House. Advisory work uses the same numbers to change what happens next: pricing, cash, investment, tax planning and funding. Most small businesses buy only the first and wonder why the accounts are not useful.

Monthly if you are growing, carrying stock or managing tight cash. Quarterly is enough for a stable service business. Annually is not management information, it is history.

Our Self Assessment returns start at £149. Add bookkeeping from £95 a month or Making Tax Digital from £35 a month if you want the whole thing handled. All fixed fees, agreed in writing first.

Not legally. But the tax saved through properly claimed expenses and reliefs usually exceeds the fee, and from April 2027 most sole traders will have five filing deadlines a year instead of one.

Not legally, but property tax has changed so much in a decade (Section 24, the 60-day CGT window, now quarterly MTD reporting) that most landlords filing their own returns are paying more than they need to.

Yes, if gross rental income exceeds £50,000 you are already in from April 2026, and above £30,000 you join in April 2027. The test is gross rent before mortgage interest and expenses.

Our limited company accounts start at £599 a year including the Corporation Tax return and Companies House filing. Add payroll from £25 a month and VAT from £45 a month if you need them.

Companies House charges £150 up to one month late, rising to £1,500 beyond six months, and the penalty doubles if you were also late the previous year.

If you operate through a limited company, practically yes. You have statutory accounts, a Corporation Tax return, payroll and your own tax return to deal with. The fee is typically a fraction of the tax planned for.

Rules that determine whether you are genuinely in business on your own account or are effectively an employee of your client for tax purposes. Being inside IR35 significantly increases the tax on the engagement.

Our formation package is £99 one-off, covering the Companies House fee, incorporation, share structure and HMRC registrations.

Ideally before you start trading, so the structure, registrations and record keeping are right from day one. Fixing a bad first year costs more than setting it up properly.