REMEZ & PARTNERS

A Self Assessment accountant for sole traders and the self-employed

A Self Assessment accountant works out your taxable profit, claims the expenses you are entitled to, files the return and tells you what to pay and when. We do it for a fixed fee agreed in writing after a free assessment, remotely, anywhere in the UK.

One person, one return, and a system built for finance departments. Our job is to make your tax year quiet: records in order, every allowance you are entitled to, filed on time, at a price agreed before we start.

What you are actually taxed on

Not your turnover — your profit. Income for the year, minus the costs of earning it, minus your personal allowance. Income tax and Class 4 National Insurance are then charged on what is left.

This is where most self-filed returns leave money behind. People declare the income correctly and then claim a fraction of what they are entitled to, because nobody told them the business share of a phone bill counts, or that mileage is claimable, or that the room they work in has a cost.

Roughly, on your profit

Self-employed tax estimator (2026/27)

Income tax + Class 4 NI, standard personal allowance, England & Wales rates. Estimate only.

An estimate on the 2026/27 rates, before expenses. The real figure comes down once your costs are in — which is the part we do.

Do you even need to file?

Plenty of people file returns they do not need to, and plenty who should file have no idea. Six triggers cover most cases:

Do I need to file a Self Assessment?

Find out what it would cost — free

Tell us your situation in a sentence: what you do, roughly what you earn, and what is worrying you. We come back with what needs doing and what it costs, in writing. No obligation, and no charge for the assessment.

Or send an email

Free assessment first. If there is work to do, you get a fixed quote in writing before anything starts.

What we do for sole traders

  • Registration and UTR — including for people who started trading a while ago and never got round to it.
  • The Self Assessment return, prepared, explained in plain English and filed.
  • Sole trader accounts where the return needs supporting figures.
  • Bookkeeping, monthly or quarterly, so nothing is reconstructed in January.
  • Expenses reviewed properly — claimed where they are allowable, left alone where they are not.
  • Payments on account explained, so the January bill is not a shock twice over.
  • HMRC correspondence handled as your agent.

Looking for a Self Assessment accountant near you?

We are based in London and work with clients across the UK. In practice location stopped mattering some years ago: documents are sent by phone, the engagement letter is signed electronically, the identity check takes about three minutes from your camera, and HMRC deals with us by post and online regardless of which town you are in.

What "near me" usually means in practice is someone I can actually reach — and that we can promise more reliably than a nearby office can: a reply within 24 hours on any channel, from the person doing the work. If you would rather meet, we do that too; it is simply not a requirement.

The expenses people miss

Not exotic ones. Ordinary ones:

  • Mileage in your own vehicle, or a share of running costs
  • The business proportion of phone and internet
  • Working from home — a real, calculable cost, not a token
  • Tools, equipment and software
  • Professional insurance, subscriptions and certification
  • Training that maintains the skills you already sell
  • Bank charges on a business account, and accountancy fees

We claim what is allowable and no more. An inflated return is not a saving; it is a compliance check waiting for a trigger, and the arithmetic never favours you.

The dates

  • 5 October — register for Self Assessment after your first tax year of trading.
  • 31 October — paper returns, if you file that way.
  • 31 January — online return, plus the balancing payment and any first payment on account.
  • 31 July — second payment on account.

Miss the filing date and it is £100 straight away, charged even when you owe no tax. We would rather you never met that number: clients get a reminder well before January, and we prefer to file in the spring while the information is still fresh.

Sole trader or limited company?

The question everyone asks, usually framed as though there is a universal answer. There is not. A company can be more efficient above a certain profit and once you are leaving money in the business; below that, it mostly buys you statutory accounts, a corporation tax return, a confirmation statement and more administration than the saving justifies.

What actually decides it is your numbers: profit, how much you need to draw personally, and how much administration you are willing to carry. We will model both and give you the break-even figure for your situation, not a rule of thumb from a forum.

More on self-employment and self assessment

Questions people ask

How much does an accountant cost for a sole trader?

It depends on how much work there is: a single Self Assessment from tidy records is a different job from a year of loose receipts with two income sources. What we will not do is quote by the hour and surprise you. You get a fixed price in writing after a free assessment, and it does not move unless the work turns out to be materially different from what you described — in which case we tell you before we continue, not after.

What does a Self Assessment accountant actually do?

Turns your year into a return HMRC accepts: works out the taxable profit from your records, claims what you are entitled to, files it, and tells you what to pay and when. The useful part is usually not the filing — it is the questions asked before it, which is where allowances get found and mistakes get caught.

I searched for someone near me. Does it matter that you are in London?

No. Everything works remotely: documents by phone, engagement letter signed electronically, a three-minute identity check from your camera. We act as your agent with HMRC wherever you are in the UK, and you get a reply within 24 hours from the person doing the work rather than a receptionist.

Do I actually need an accountant?

Not always, and we will say so. If you have one straightforward income source, records in order and no complications, filing yourself is entirely reasonable. It stops being reasonable when there is foreign income, property, CIS deductions, a mid-year change of status, or a letter from HMRC — those are the cases where an evening of guessing costs more than the fee.

When do I need to register?

By 5 October following the end of the tax year in which you started trading. Miss it and you can still register — but penalties become possible where tax ends up paid late as a result.

What records do you actually need from me?

Income for the year, the costs you paid, and bank statements covering both. Photographs of receipts are fine; a shoebox is fine; a spreadsheet is better. We tell you exactly what is missing rather than sending a generic checklist.

What happens if I miss 31 January?

£100 immediately, charged even when you owe no tax. Then £10 a day once you are 3 months late, then 5% of the tax due or £300, whichever is greater at six months. Interest runs on unpaid tax separately. File first to stop the growth, then appeal if you have a reasonable excuse.

Should I be a limited company instead?

Sometimes, and the honest answer depends on numbers rather than principle: profit level, how much you need to draw, whether you want the administration. A company brings statutory accounts, a corporation tax return and a confirmation statement — worth it above a certain profit, an expensive habit below it. We will run your figures both ways and tell you where your break-even actually sits.

Figures are for the tax year shown and change every April. They are general information, not advice — we check the current position for your circumstances before anything is filed.

Reviewed 19 October 2026.