Summary
Our services for freelance contractors are designed for individuals working in the Computing/IT, Engineering, Design, Consulting, Medical, Social Work, Legal, Accounting and similar sectors using a Personal Service Company (PSC), or anyone with a company predominantly supplying their own skills and experience.
The primary aims of the service are:
- To help you understand and manage your company efficiently and in compliance with the law
- To help you minimise the time and effort involved with accounting and administration
- To help you in managing your taxes and tax planing
We do not offer Umbrella or Composite company arrangements.
We have over 35 years experience in the sector, pre dating IR35. We possibly have a longer experience than any other UK accounting firm on IR35 matters, given we started advising clients within hours of the original 1998 press release.
This guide is part of a series. This is the index:
- Index to our PSC Guidance
- Whitefield PSC services
- PSC Basics – including set up and closure
- IR35 & Related Issues
- Tax and VAT for a PSC – including Corporation Tax, Income Tax, NI, PAYE and VAT
- Expenses for a PSC
- Accounting for a PSC – including bookkeeping, invoicing, receipts, dividend administration
- Practical Issues for a PSC – some of the questions and issues our clients raise regularly
- Whitefield PSC Spreadsheet
Contents
- Comprehensive PSC Service
- Comprehensive Plus PSC Service
- Company Formation Service
- Joining Us
- Fair Use
- Leaving, Joining, Termination and Minimum Fee
- Out of Contract
- IR35 Contract Reviews
- Companies House Confirmation Statement
- Professional Fee Protection
- Comprehensive PSC service with complimentary use of our PSC Spreadsheet – basic fee £1,000 pa + vat, payable monthly at £100 including vat.
- Comprehensive PSC service with FreeAgent Software – basic fee £1,396 pa + vat, payable monthly at £139.60 including vat
- Fee Indexation applies after the third year we have acted for you.
Our comprehensive PSC service covers:
- Annual pre year end tax review where requested
- Preparation of annual accounts
- Preparation of the company’s corporation tax computations, iXBRL tagged accounts and CT600 return
- Calculation and administration of PAYE/NI scheme including RTI
- Assistance with the calculation and administration of quarterly VAT returns, where our spreadsheet template is used
- Preparation of director and spouse personal Self Assessment returns
- IR35 advice and assistance
- Dealing with all routine tax issues related to your business (other than HMRC full enquiries and IR35 status challenges)
- Companies House administration (other than filing Confirmation Statement, and maintaining Register of People with Significant Control)
- Registered office service
- Liaison with your pension/investment advisers
- References for loans, mortgages and tenancies
- Ad-hoc advice as necessary
- Pre booked phone discussions (email is our preferred method of communication, but on occasion a telephone chat can be more effective)
- We also have a comprehensive plus service available, £1,600 + vat (See guidance below), which includes processing and entering basic transactions for you.
- Services subject to Fair Use
The following services are charged separately, as used/requested :
- Filing of your Confirmation Statement at Companies House £48 to include statutory filing fee (many clients deal with this themselves) (this fee increases from 1st May 2024 die to changes at Companies House)
- Maintaining your Register of People with Significant Control
- Tax Enquiries and fighting IR35 status challenges (we strongly recommend that you take out Professional Fee Protection Cover for this separately).
- IR35 Contract Reviews (£100 + vat informal review, £250 + vat formal review)
- Annual dividend vouchers and minutes £100 + vat (many clients deal with this themselves as necessary, but we offer the service for clients who request it)
- Major items of additional work – these will be charged by the hour, but you will be advised in advance before incurring charges
Your responsibilities:
- Day to day bookkeeping via your chosen accounting system
- Invoicing your client
- Submission of Vat returns (we offer a checking service)
Comprehensive Plus PSC Service
If you need help with day to day bookkeeping, data entry, invoicing or similar we can create a quote for you.
We set up the information flows with you on a bespoke basis, so you may wish to post or scan us all your paperwork, or keep a basic summary yourself and sent that to us for entry to your accounts systems.
- £120 pus VAT (£144.00 inclusive of VAT) – direct payment or credit card. This includes the first months regular accounting services. (this fee increases from 1st May 2024 die to changes at Companies House)
This fee covers:
- Registration of your company at Companies House
- Registering the company with HMRC for Corporation Tax
- Registration with HMRC as an employer
- Registration with HMRC for VAT (if relevant)
- Advice and guidance on getting started with your company
In terms of time scales on forming a company:
- Submission to Companies House – we normally do this same day or next day, and will let you have a company number as soon as we hear back from Companies House. Normally we have the company number within 24-48 hours.
- Completion of file opening – we have a number of formalities to complete, including identification and sending you a comprehensive welcome pack, and where requested dealing with Vat registration etc – we tailor our advice bespoke to each client to make sure you are setting out on the right foot – allow a week for this, although its normally just a few days.
- Vat registration – this is outside of our hands, allow two weeks, although HMRC are normally quicker. We apply for this online for you.
- Bank accounts – bank account opening is never quick these days due to banks customer identification requirements and bureaucracy. We strongly advise clients to start with their existing bank as that should be the quickest route. The bank account must be in the company name, and can’t be processed until the company is registered at Companies House.
Follow this link to register with us or to instruct us to form a PSC for you
Our fixed fee packages are priced to cover the typical service level a client needs. In any given year some clients will need more support or service, others less, and our fees balance this.
However occasionally a clients service needs, or the complexity of their requirements, will go beyond that anticipated. Rather than have a long list of exceptions or small print, we operate on a fair use basis. Where services cannot be accommodated in the fixed fee:
- We will endeavour to let clients know at the start of the engagement, or if not as early as possible
- We will avoid unreasonable suspension or withdrawal of services at short notice
- We will avoid incurring any material additional charges for clients without authorisation
- We will work collaboratively with clients to resolve the issue, either by re-pricing, a service restriction, or by agreeing changes to record keeping and presentation
Under our Terms of Business, either party can cancel the contract between us with no notice.
Leaving, Joining, Termination and Minimum Fee
We aim to make it as easy as possible for clients to join us, and for them to leave us, eg to close a company down or to move to another accountant. There are a few things we need you to know:
- The annual fee is split into monthly payments which act as a retainer for using our services, and you can cancel the agreement with us at any time, and without notice.
- Once the agreement is cancelled we will not carry out any further work for you, including tasks in progress or outstanding, eg completion of a set of accounts where the year end has passed – so it will not be possible to cancel the agreement immediately if you wish us to complete tasks in hand.
- No refund is given or price adjustment made for unused services.
- If payments are missed we will ask you to make a catch up.
- If we are closing a company down for you, you will need to continue paying the monthly fee until the company is ready for either strike off or liquidation. We promise not to prolong unnecessarily the preparatory work such as final accounts and tax returns.
We need to ensure a minimum revenue from each client engagement; so to keep things simple we operate a minimum fee:
- The minimum fee is 6 months at the full level (i.e. normally £500 + Vat based on our comprehensive service). If you cancel the agreement with us and less than six months fees have been paid, we will ask you to make up the difference.
- Where we have to catch up for a previous financial year, we will provide you with a separate quotation for this work as a one off additional charge, and the normal six months minimum fee referred to above will apply for the current year.
If you are not actively generating income in your company for more than three months then we will normally agree to a 50% reduction in our fees from month 4 – we ask you to apply to us for this reduction as we may not have up to date information to apply the adjustment automatically. We will still provide the full contracted services at the reduced rate.
You must claim this reduction by contacting us at the time you place your company on hold – sorry, we cannot apply the reduction retrospectively.
If your company becomes dormant (using Companies Act definition of no significant accounting transactions) – we may be able to agree a further reduction in our fees depending on service level required.
Upon request we will review contracts and offer (i) an opinion as to their IR35 status and (ii) advice on ways that the IR35 status may be strengthened.
We don’t enter into contract negotiations with an agent or client on your behalf, or draft contract clauses.
Our opinions on IR35 status are offered as advice, and the responsibility for making a decision on the status of each contract rests with you / your client.
Although we endeavour to complete them promptly, our contract reviews are not intended to act as a pre contract approval service. Contract reviews are specialist services, and in the event of staff holidays or sickness there may be a delay of up to four weeks in processing them; normally we will process them within a week.
Companies House Confirmation Statement
We don’t routinely prepare our clients’ Companies House Confirmation Statement (formerly known as the Annual Return).
This is an annual confirmation of shareholders, directors and addresses to Companies House, with a statutory filing fee, currently £13. The return doesn’t cover accounts or tax matters.
If you would like our assistance, we can prepare the Confirmation Statement for £40 + VAT (£48 including VAT) including the £13 filing fee. (this fee increases from 1st May 2024 die to changes at Companies House)
See our guide to Confirmation Statement or ask us to complete for you
Many people who work through PSCs like the reassurance of Insurance against Professional Fees for IR35 and other tax matters.
We offer a Professional Fee Protection Scheme, which is optional but recommended.