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Compliance17 October 2026·14 min read

Contractor accountant fees: what £60–£150 a month really buys

Contractor accountants advertise fixed fees from about £60 to £150 per month plus VAT, but the same number can buy very different work. This guide sets out the filings your company must make, what the fee normally covers, which jobs are often charged as additional fees (Self Assessment, VAT, payroll, IR35 reviews), and how to compare quotes line by line.

A one-person contractor company can expect to pay about £60 to £150 per month plus VAT for a fixed-fee contractor accountant. The core of that fee is the year-end accounts and the Corporation Tax return (CT600). Whether it also covers your Self Assessment, VAT returns, director's payroll and an IR35 review depends on the firm. Those four jobs are where quotes that look alike stop being alike. They are also what turns a £60 accountant cost into a £100 one.

This article sets out what your company has to file, what the monthly fee normally buys, what is charged on top, how accountants charge and how you pay your accountant. It then shows how to put two quotes side by side.

What your limited company has to file each year, including the tax return

You can pay someone to do the filing, but the filing is yours. GOV.UK is plain about it: you can hire an accountant to manage day-to-day tasks, but you remain legally responsible for your company's records, accounts and performance. A director who does not meet those responsibilities may be fined, prosecuted or disqualified.

After each financial year, a private limited company must prepare full (statutory) annual accounts and a Company Tax Return. The deadlines on GOV.UK are:

What When Who it goes to
First accounts 21 months after the date you registered with Companies House Companies House
Annual accounts 9 months after the company's financial year ends Companies House
Pay Corporation Tax, or tell HMRC none is owed 9 months and 1 day after the accounting period ends HMRC
Company Tax Return (the CT600) 12 months after the accounting period ends HMRC
Confirmation statement Filed through the Companies House WebFiling service Companies House

Your accounting period for Corporation Tax is the time covered by your Company Tax Return. It is normally the same 12 months as the financial year covered by your annual accounts. You can file with Companies House and HMRC together or separately. Late filing carries penalties with both.

A worked example. Say your company's financial year, and so its accounting period, ends on 31 March 2026. The annual accounts are due at Companies House by 31 December 2026. Any Corporation Tax is due by 1 January 2027, which is 9 months and 1 day after the period ends. The Company Tax Return is due by 31 March 2027. The Corporation Tax payment falls before the return, so your accountant needs the figures well ahead of the return deadline.

The confirmation statement was previously called the annual return. Before you file one, you may need to verify your identity through GOV.UK One Login, which gives you a personal code. If your company has more than one director, you need each director's code. That step is yours to do. An accountant cannot do it for you. You can also sign up on GOV.UK for email alerts that tell you when the statement is due. The paper route costs £110 and is rarely worth it.

Separately from the company's filings, you as a director have a personal tax return, your Self Assessment. That is the one most often priced separately, so it gets its own section below.

How much does an accountant charge a contractor?

For a limited company contractor, published fee guides for 2026/27 give these bands:

  • £60 to £100 per month for a solo director with no employees on a basic package covering annual accounts, Corporation Tax and the director's Self Assessment
  • £100 to £175 per month once payroll, VAT filing and regular bookkeeping are added
  • £200 to £250 per month or more for complex needs such as frequent transactions, CIS returns or management accounts

Those are advertised ranges, not survey results. Treat them as a guide and get every quote in writing.

The price moves with turnover and transaction volume, VAT registration, payroll and how much bookkeeping you hand over. A contractor with one client and a monthly invoice sits at the simple end. The same contractor with three clients, a stack of expenses and a VAT registration does not.

What is the average cost of an accountant for a small business?

A small business, in accountants' terms, can be anything from a self-employed contractor to a limited company with up to 50 employees. For that whole group the accounting service is usually sold as a package. The standard core is annual accounts, bookkeeping, Corporation Tax returns, the director's personal tax return, payroll returns, quarterly VAT returns and ongoing day-to-day advice, for a fixed monthly fee. Businesses with more employees and higher turnover pay more.

For a one-person contractor company, the bands above are the better guide. Most of the extra services in a small business package simply do not apply to you.

How accountants charge: fixed fee, hourly or per job

There are four common ways accountants charge:

  • A monthly package spreads the cost across the year. It is the usual choice for limited companies that want regular support, and it helps cash flow because you know what leaves the account each month.
  • A fixed fee for a defined job, such as one tax return or one set of accounts.
  • An hourly rate, kept for advisory work, investigations, catch-up bookkeeping or anything where the time needed is unpredictable. Chartered accountants' hourly rates run from £75 to £150 or more. Ask for an estimate before the work starts.
  • A one-off project fee, for example for setting up a company or sorting a backlog of records.

Fixed monthly fees are the norm for contractors, because the need is steady through the year. Hourly billing makes sense for a single question. If every email adds to the bill, you stop asking the questions that would save you tax.

You can mix the methods: a monthly fee for routine compliance and an hourly rate for bespoke tax advice. Accountancy practices also review their prices from time to time, so ask when your fee can change and whether it is fixed for the year.

The contractor accountant's monthly fee, layer by layer

The typical contractor package includes:

  • preparation and filing of the annual limited company accounts
  • Corporation Tax calculation and submission
  • accounting software such as Xero or FreeAgent
  • support with HMRC and Companies House correspondence

A contractor accountancy firm's published price list shows how the layers stack:

Tier Monthly cost What it adds
Basic £60–£100 Year-end accounts, Corporation Tax return, accounting software
Standard £100–£140 VAT returns, director payroll, dividend guidance
Premium £140–£200+ Self Assessment, IR35 support, priority advice

The tiers show the principle. Where each service lands varies from firm to firm. Some include the director's Self Assessment on the first rung, as the solo-director packages above do. Others hold it back for a higher one. That is a difference between products, which is why the next section matters.

A specialist contractor accountant is one that works mainly with personal service companies. That usually means familiarity with IR35, dividend income and the way contractors take money out of a company. A general accountant can do the compliance work. If your affairs are unusually complex tax-wise, such as R&D claims or complicated import and export VAT, the question changes. Otherwise a general accountant who understands contractors is enough.

The add-ons that move the price

The director's self-assessment tax return

This is the line to check first. Not every accountant includes the director's Self Assessment, or the year-end Corporation Tax filing, in the monthly package. Some firms sell them as separate jobs.

Where a Self-Assessment tax return is charged separately, expect somewhere between £150 and £500. A director taking salary and dividends has a simple income picture, so the lower end of any firm's range is the likelier one.

Two timing points are worth knowing before you sign. Some accountants ask for around six weeks' notice for a return that has to be done ahead of the 31 January deadline, and a rushed return can cost more. If you are moving accountants and have returns to catch up on, expect a separate fee for that.

VAT returns and Making Tax Digital

If your company is VAT-registered, VAT returns must be filed digitally under Making Tax Digital (MTD). That means compatible software, which most contractor packages supply. Some firms put VAT in a higher tier, and some price it as an add-on. One firm's VAT-registered bundle costs £128 plus VAT per month against £88 for its entry bundle. Standalone VAT returns are priced at around £50 to £200 or more per return, depending on transaction volume and how tidy the records are.

Some entry packages state plainly that VAT returns are not included. Quarterly VAT returns then sit in the higher package.

Director's payroll

Most contractor companies pay the director a salary through payroll, then take dividends. A payroll service typically covers PAYE calculations, RTI submissions to HMRC, pension processing and payslips. Standalone payroll is priced at £18 to £75 per month for one to five employees. For a one-person company it is a small, fixed monthly job, so ask what the firm charges for it as a separate line.

IR35 reviews

IR35, also known as off-payroll working, was introduced in 2000. It exists to ensure contractors and freelancers pay the right amount of tax by making sure they assign the correct role to themselves. Whether a contract falls inside or outside IR35 changes how your income is taxed. Outside IR35, contractors usually take a mix of salary and dividends. Inside IR35, pay may go through PAYE, which changes how it is reported.

General IR35 advice is often part of the service. A review of a specific contract is a separate piece of work. IR35 contract reviews tend to sit in higher tiers and are not always in lower-cost packages. Price it per contract, because you will want one every time you sign a new agreement.

Additional fees that appear after you sign

These are the charges that sit outside many fixed fees. Ask about each one:

  • HMRC correspondence that goes beyond routine filing
  • Amending a return after missing information or a mistake
  • One-off tax advice, such as tax planning or a change of business structure
  • Rush fees for urgent or overdue filings
  • Software subscriptions, if Xero, FreeAgent or QuickBooks is not bundled
  • Company secretarial work, such as changing directors or filing confirmation statements, which some firms charge £50 to £150 per job for

On software, if you hold the subscription yourself it typically costs an extra £10 to £40 or more per month. Company formation (£50 to £100) and CIS returns (from around £30 per month) also turn up on quotes. Neither applies to most contractor companies already trading. Bookkeeping catch-up work and support during an HMRC enquiry are further charges to ask about.

These are the items that decide whether a cheap monthly fee stays cheap.

How to pay your accountant, and what to ask before you do

Most contractors pay their accountant a fixed monthly fee, because it is certain and spreads the cost across the year. You can instead pay per job, by the hour, or a mixture. A monthly package also gives you regular access to accounting advice rather than a bill at the year end.

Much of this is now online accounting. An online accountant charges the same rate wherever you are based, and you usually get cloud software and secure document sharing. Ask whether you will have a dedicated accountant or be passed between people, and how quickly questions are answered. A named contact and an engagement letter are fair requests, and a firm that cannot explain what its fee includes is a red flag.

How to compare two quotes properly

Two packages at the same price can include very different work. Compare quotes against the same service list. In practice:

  1. Write the list first. Use the filings above: year-end accounts, CT600, confirmation statement, director's Self Assessment, VAT returns (if registered), director's payroll, IR35 reviews.
  2. Mark each line as included, extra (with a price) or not offered. A blank means you have not asked yet.
  3. Check the volume limit. Most fixed-fee packages carry a transaction limit per period. One online firm's headline price assumes turnover under the VAT threshold and fewer than 100 transactions a year. If you invoice monthly and have modest expenses, you are likely inside such a limit, but confirm it.
  4. Compare on the same VAT basis. Many contractor accountants quote ex-VAT. Check each quote says which it is.
  5. Ask who does the work and how fast they respond. Cheaper is not always better, and the dearest is not automatically best.
  6. Ask about timing. Is there a notice period for the Self Assessment, or a rush fee?

A worked example. These figures are illustrative, not taken from any firm. Firm A quotes £60 per month and charges a separate £250 for the director's Self Assessment. Firm B quotes £80 per month with the return included.

  • Firm A: £60 × 12 = £720, plus £250 = £970 a year
  • Firm B: £80 × 12 = £960 a year

The cheaper-looking monthly fee is the dearer year. Add a VAT registration and payroll that Firm A prices separately, and the gap widens. Compare the annual cost of the whole list, not the monthly headline.

Cost of an accountant: is it tax deductible?

A limited company can claim accountancy fees as an allowable Corporation Tax expense, provided the work is wholly and exclusively for business purposes. Whether the whole invoice qualifies depends on what it covers, so ask your accountant how the different parts of your bill are treated.

Is an accountant worth it if you are self-employed or a sole trader?

A sole trader usually pays less than a limited company, because there are no statutory accounts or Corporation Tax return to file. The cost still buys something. A qualified accountant can find allowable expenses you would miss, and HMRC's Self Assessment penalties start at £100 for a late return.

Self-employed people with income over £50,000 face a further change. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for Income Tax) is mandatory from 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000. It replaces one annual return with four quarterly updates plus a tax return, which usually adds to the fee. Whether it affects your own return depends on your sources of income, so ask your accountant.

If you are currently paid through an umbrella company, there are no company accounts to file. Moving to your own limited company brings the filings in this article. Some contractor accountants offer an umbrella company service and let you switch to a limited company package without a transfer fee, so ask.

What we include at Deplexify

Our accounting service for a contractor's limited company costs £75 per month, with no setup fee and no VAT to add. The monthly price includes:

  • bookkeeping in Deplexify Books, so there is no software to buy
  • invoices to the agency raised from the timesheet
  • expenses captured by a photo of the receipt
  • the year-end accounts filed at Companies House
  • the Corporation Tax return (CT600) with its computation
  • the confirmation statement
  • the director's own Self Assessment return, with salary and dividends on one return
  • dividend vouchers and board minutes

Three things are add-ons, and only if the company needs them. VAT returns are +£15 per month (Making Tax Digital returns, standard or flat rate scheme). Director's payroll is +£10 per month: the salary is run through payroll each month and reported to HMRC. An IR35 review is £95 a contract. A chartered accountant checks every file and signs off the accounts and both tax returns before anything is filed. The details are on our contractors page.

On that pricing, a VAT-registered contractor with director's payroll pays £100 per month, with IR35 reviews charged per contract. That is the shape of price to look for in any quote: a clear base, and add-ons that are named and priced.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do contractors need an accountant?

Not legally. Limited company contractors are not required to hire one. They still have to prepare company accounts, submit the Corporation Tax return, file the confirmation statement and keep accurate records. GOV.UK is clear that responsibility stays with the director even when an accountant does the work.

Can I do my own business accounts?

Yes, if you are comfortable with the bookkeeping, tax calculations and statutory filings, and you understand HMRC's requirements. The deadlines in the table above still apply, and late filing carries penalties with both Companies House and HMRC. The question is whether hiring an accountant costs less than the time and the risk of an error.

Is a contractor accountant different from a professional accountant in general practice?

A contractor accountant specialises in the work of freelancers, consultants and personal service company directors: IR35, dividend income and limited company compliance. A general professional accountant can do the same filings. The difference shows up in how well they know contractor-specific rules.

Is a fixed monthly fee better than hourly billing?

For routine compliance, usually yes. A fixed fee gives you a known annual cost and lets you ask questions without watching the clock. Hourly billing suits a single query or advisory work.

Are accountant fees 100% tax deductible?

They are an allowable expense for a limited company when the work is wholly and exclusively for business purposes. Check with your accountant how that applies to each part of your invoice.

Sources

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