Here at TaxAgility, we believe that managing your financial affairs can be an extra hassle that contractors simply don’t need, which is why our specialist contractor accountants are on hand to lighten your workload and give you that work-life balance you deserve.
What is a contractor?
Contractors are self-employed individuals who have escaped ‘traditional’ company-dictated working hours by setting up a business for themselves. Contractors offer a specialised service to a wide range of clients. Some examples include writers, carpenters, builders and IT specialists.
Why does a contractor need an accountant?
Running a business means contractors need to market themselves, prepare quotations, fulfil contractual obligations, invoice clients, and also taking care of the administrative function and tax obligation. They are busy individuals who constantly juggling the stresses of multiple roles.
Concerningly, 44% of contractors who took part in a YouGov survey revealed they had missed a personal occasion due to work, while a staggering 10% said they missed their own birthday party due to their workload. A further 11% said that they had missed anniversaries.
Accounts and tax are areas that most contractors do not possess enough knowledge to complete the financial tasks required accurately and efficiently, and this is where an accountant for contractors comes in.
How can accountants help contractors?
Allowing accountants that specialise in helping contractors handle your finances will enable you to focus on growing your contracting business and put your mind at ease, with the assurance that a team of specialists are on the job.
At TaxAgility, our dedicated team of contractor accountants is perfectly placed to lighten the weight of financial administration on contractor’s shoulders. The areas we can assist include:
1. Find a company structure that is best for you
As a contractor, you can choose to set up a limited company or work under an umbrella company. Most contractors prefer to run their own limited company because it is tax-efficient. In this case, we will guide you through the necessary legal requirements and help you to understand your legal and financial responsibilities as a shareholder, director and employee.
2. Manage accounts and bookkeeping requirements
Assisting with bookkeeping, cash-flow forecasts, preparing your monthly management accounts, filing annual statutory, are just some of the tasks we can manage on behalf of you.
3. Contractor tax services
VAT, NI, PAYE, Self-Assessment tax returns, and using dividends to make up a portion of your income are tasks that we can help you with. If you would like to know more about dividends, check out this post “Understanding dividends“.
4. IR35 support
IR35 is a mind-bogglingly complex issue that troubles many contractors as there is no definitive guideline that stipulates the conditions of a ‘breach’. This means you can read as much about IR35 and still do not know if you are inside or outside the scope of IR35. The best approach is to contact an accountant for contractors like us and discuss your situations in detail.
5. Answer any questions you have
It is natural to ask questions when you run a contractor business. Questions such as should you (and can you) register for flat-rate VAT? What business expenses you can claim as an IT contractor? Can you put a family member on the payroll? – all of them are valid questions deserve honest answers from our accountants.
6. Keep you out of legal trouble
There are many tax deadlines associating with setting yourself up as a contractor and running a business; we can help you to submit all the necessary documents before the deadlines to avoid fines. Moreover, while we strongly believe in helping contractors being tax-efficient, we do not practice creative accounting that will raise questions from HMRC.
7. Peace of mind
With us working alongside you, you do not have to spend needless hours managing headache-inducing financial tasks. This means you can focus on matters that are important to you, like amplifying your business visibility and driving the success of your contracting business.
TaxAgility is here for contractors
With three offices across London – we are in Putney, Richmond and Central London, our team of accountants specialise in contractors can manage your accounts and financial tasks for you. To find out how we can help, call us today on 020 8108 0090 or get in touch with us via our contact page to arrange a complimentary, no-obligation meeting.
If you found this interesting, you may also enjoy:
- IT Contractor Tax: what do I have to pay?
- Tax planning tips for self-employed contractors
- Moving from permanent employee to full-time contractor
This post is intended to provide information of general interest about current business issues. It should not replace professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances.