Making Tax Digital made compliant, software-based record-keeping non-negotiable. We run MTD-ready books in Xero and prepare your VAT and Corporation Tax so deadlines stop being a fire drill. Published prices exclude VAT.
Most outsourced providers quote only on request. Every figure on this page is published, in GBP, for United Kingdom work — so you can hold it against a quote you already have instead of booking a call to find out.
| Tier | A local firm charges | Salt publishes | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentialup to 150 transactions a month | £150 – £350a month | £150a month | Up to £200 a month |
| Growth150–500 transactions a month | £350 – £900a month | £400a month | Up to £500 a month |
| Scale500–1,000 transactions a month | £900 – £1,800a month | £900a month | Up to £900 a month |
Above 1,000 transactions a month — quoted in 24 hours.
“A local firm charges” is the going rate for the same scope in United Kingdom, in GBP, benchmarked September 2026. Salt's card is reviewed on 1 December 2026. Where Salt sits inside the bottom of the local range rather than under it, the row says so.
Prices exclude VAT.
Xero
Making Tax Digital means the VAT return must come out of MTD-compatible software with an unbroken digital link — no spreadsheet copy-paste into the return.
| Obligation | Frequency | Due | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAT return and payment (Making Tax Digital)VAT-registered businesses | Quarterly | 1 month and 7 days after the end of the VAT period | HMRC |
| Corporation tax paymentCompanies with profits under £1.5m | Annual | 9 months and 1 day after the end of the accounting period | HMRC |
| CT600 company tax return | Annual | 12 months after the end of the accounting period | HMRC |
| Annual accounts to Companies HousePrivate limited companies | Annual | 9 months after the accounting reference date | Companies House |
| PAYE Real Time Information submission and paymentEmployers | Monthly | RTI on or before each payday; payment by the 22nd of the following month electronically | HMRC |
| Self Assessment return and balancing paymentDirectors and sole traders | Annual | 31 January | HMRC |
Last reviewed against the source . These are the standard dates. Extensions through a registered agent, a non-calendar year end, and volume-based filing frequencies all shift them — confirm your own dates with HMRC. This is general information, not tax advice.
Thirteen services across three teams, each described for the United Kingdom specifically rather than in general. Compliance is deliberately a separate team from bookkeeping, so liability and pricing stay clean.
£150 per month · up to 150 transactions a month · GBP
Under Making Tax Digital, UK bookkeeping is no longer only about accuracy — HMRC expects an unbroken digital link from the transaction to the VAT return. We keep your Xero file MTD-compliant and reconciled weekly, so each quarterly return, due one month and seven days after the period ends, is generated from the ledger instead of typed in from a spreadsheet.
Read the United Kingdom bookkeeping guide£75 per month of backlog · GBP
Overdue UK books have a hierarchy of pain. Companies House penalties escalate once accounts pass nine months after your accounting reference date, while HMRC's points-based regime charges per missed VAT return. We rebuild into MTD-compatible software so the digital link to each late return survives, then sequence the catch-up against whichever deadline lands first rather than working chronologically.
Read the United Kingdom catch-up bookkeeping guide£1,200 12-month reconstruction · GBP
UK cleanups converge on two balances nobody reconciled: the VAT control account and the director's loan account. Both compound quietly, and both are the first thing an accountant queries. We reconcile them to statement, restate opening balances, and rebuild in software with an intact MTD digital link so the VAT return is generated from the ledger rather than agreed to it afterwards.
Read the United Kingdom accounting cleanup guide£450 per month · 50–300 invoices · GBP
UK payables sit directly underneath VAT recovery. Input tax is only reclaimable against a valid VAT invoice, and on a quarterly MTD cycle any gap in supplier documentation becomes a disallowed claim within weeks rather than years. We capture bills through Dext into Xero, match them to payments, and keep the audit trail HMRC would expect on an enquiry.
Accounts Payable in United Kingdom£350 per month · GBP
A UK invoice is a VAT event. Output tax falls due by reference to the tax point rather than the payment date, so a slow-paying customer still leaves you funding VAT on the next quarterly return. We invoice and collect on a structured cadence, report DSO monthly, and keep that VAT timing visible in the cash forecast rather than discovered at quarter end.
Accounts Receivable in United Kingdom£50 per month · up to 10 staff · GBP
UK payroll is real-time by law. An RTI Full Payment Submission has to reach HMRC on or before each payday — not at month end — and the PAYE liability is payable by the 22nd of the following month when paid electronically. We run payroll in BrightPay or Xero Payroll, file RTI on schedule, and reconcile the PAYE control account to the ledger every month.
Read the United Kingdom payroll guide£500 per month · GBP
In the UK a controller sits between the bookkeeper and the FRS 102 accounts. The close has to produce numbers that survive three destinations: the quarterly MTD VAT return, the Companies House accounts due nine months after your reference date, and the CT600 due at twelve. We own the close and the controls so all three come off one set of books.
Read the United Kingdom controller guide£900 per month · GBP
UK corporation tax is payable nine months and one day after your accounting period ends — three months before the CT600 that calculates it is even due. That gap is where UK companies get caught: the cash leaves before the return is prepared. A virtual CFO forecasts the liability through the year, models the salary and dividend mix, and keeps runway visible against it.
Read the United Kingdom virtual cfo guide£150 per return · GBP
UK compliance is three deadlines that look like one. Corporation tax is payable nine months and one day after the period ends, the CT600 is due at twelve months, and Companies House accounts at nine months from the reference date. Directors then have Self Assessment on 31 January. We prepare all four from a single closed set of FRS 102 accounts.
Read the United Kingdom tax preparation guide£30 per month, managed · GBP
UK VAT registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling twelve months, and the test looks forward as well as back. Returns are quarterly under Making Tax Digital, due one month and seven days after the period ends, and have to travel a digital link from the ledger. We keep that link intact and file from the books, not from a spreadsheet.
Read the United Kingdom sales tax · vat · gst guide£8,000 per project · GBP
UK rounds usually turn on the venture tax reliefs. Advance assurance, the share classes those schemes permit and the timing of the share issue all constrain the structure, and the FRS 102 accounts have to support whatever the model claims. We build the three-statement model, reconcile the cap table against Companies House filings, and prepare a data room that survives diligence.
Fundraising Finance in United Kingdom£350 per entity · standard · GBP
A UK migration has to preserve the MTD digital link. HMRC expects an unbroken electronic path from source transaction to VAT return, so a cut-over that leaves a manual re-keying step is non-compliant even when the numbers are right. We migrate into Xero with Dext feeding it, and reconcile opening balances to the last VAT period you filed.
Tech Stack Migration in United KingdomUK practices use us for the production layer: bookkeeping, quarterly VAT preparation under MTD, and FRS 102 accounts and CT600 workpapers assembled ready for review. Your firm keeps the client relationship, the HMRC agent authorisation and the submission. We work inside your Xero or practice-management environment under your client codes, and we are never client-facing.
White-Label Accounting in United KingdomA London marketing agency, 900 transactions a month, VAT-registered, 18 staff.
Figures in GBP. Fully loaded cost includes employer NIC, pension, software and supervision.
Added when you need them, priced the same way — a published figure in GBP, not a range that resolves on a call.
| Service | Basis | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Catch-up bookkeeping | per month of backlog | £75 |
| Accounting cleanup | 12-month reconstruction | £1,200 |
| Accounts payable | per month · 50–300 invoices | £450 |
| Accounts receivable | per month | £350 |
| Payroll — base | per month · up to 10 staff | £50 |
| Payroll — per head | per employee per month | £5 |
| Sales tax · VAT · GST · BAS | per filing | £100 |
| Sales tax · VAT · GST · BAS | per month, managed | £30 |
| Business tax return | per return | £700 |
| Personal / director return | per return | £150 |
| Controller / management accounts | per month | £500 |
| Virtual CFO | per month | £3,000 |
| Virtual FDUnited Kingdom only — the second CFO tier the UK market runs and the other three do not. | per month | £900 |
| MTD for Income TaxUnited Kingdom only — Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. | per month | £25 |
| Tech stack migration | per entity · standard | £350 |
| Fundraising finance | per project | £8,000 |
Busy-season surge
Standard turnaround is 48–72 hours. A turnaround under 48 hours during peak season is charged at +25% on the line above. Standard turnaround is the default; the surcharge applies only when you ask for the faster one.
Prices exclude VAT.
Salt Accounting Group is a front-end brand. Delivery is by contracted partner firms working to Salt's scope and review. Salt holds no offices, no employees and no professional registration in United Kingdom, and nothing on this page should be read as a claim to any. Every engagement runs under a multi-jurisdictional NDA, agreed before access to your file is set up.
No bookkeeping tier includes a VAT return. Returns are priced at £100 per filing, or £30 a month managed. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is its own line at £25 a month. Compliance is deliberately a separate service from bookkeeping, so liability and pricing stay clean against each other.
These are statutory fees set by Companies House. Salt does not charge them, does not mark them up and does not take any part of them — they are listed so you can budget the whole United Kingdom obligation rather than only our share of it. Rates below take effect on 1 February 2026; if a quote you are comparing still shows an older figure, it predates that change.
| Companies House filing | Payable to Companies House |
|---|---|
| Confirmation statement — digital | £50 |
| Confirmation statement — paper | £110 |
| Incorporation — digital | £100 |
No Salt price on this page includes one of these. Where a Companies House fee is paid on your behalf it is passed through at cost and itemised as a Companies House fee on the invoice, separate from anything Salt charges for the work.
The difference, taken at its worstAt least £23,663 a yearThat is the cheapest in-house figure, £34,463a year, set against Salt's most expensive published tier, £10,800 a year. Every other pairing is a larger gap.
The two are not like for like and it would be dishonest to present them as such: an in-house hire is one person's full working week, while Salt's tiers are priced by transaction volume. Compare the cost of getting the books done, not the cost of a desk.
Prices exclude VAT.
Built for the UK pain points we hear most: MTD digital-record requirements · Quarterly VAT cadence · Director Self Assessment overhead.
We prepare to UK GAAP (FRS 102) or IFRS, as adopted. These are the bodies that set that framework and the authorities you file with — linked so you can verify the standard rather than take our word for it.
Listed for reference. Salt Accounting Group is not stating membership, registration or affiliation with any of these organisations. Where a filing must be lodged by a registered local agent, it is — your agent keeps the lodgement and the professional sign-off.
Tell us where you trade and what shape the books are in. You get scope, price and a start date in writing within one business day — no obligation.
