Three ways to pay for an accountant
What you pay depends less on the accountant and more on what you're buying. There are three broad options:
- An accountancy practice on an annual or monthly fee. They prepare your accounts and tax returns. Bookkeeping is often extra.
- An employee: someone on your payroll who does the finance work every day.
- A dedicated offshore accountant: a full-time person employed by a provider such as StaffLink, working only for you.
Accountancy fees for sole traders
Sleek's 2026 guide puts sole trader accountancy at around £150 to £1,200 a year, with a Self Assessment return on its own at about £150 to £350. The range is wide because it depends on how much work the accountant has to do. A tidy spreadsheet and one source of income sit at the bottom. Rental income, several bank accounts, VAT or a box of receipts push it up.
Since April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 have also had to send quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Expect practices to charge more for that: it's four extra submissions a year.
Accountancy fees for limited companies
For a small limited company, the same source gives roughly £800 to £3,000 a year, or about £65 to £250 a month on a monthly package. A basic package covers the annual accounts, the corporation tax return (CT600) and the confirmation statement. VAT, payroll and bookkeeping are usually priced on top:
- Bookkeeping: about £20 to £50 an hour, or from around £150 a month
- Payroll: about £4 to £12 per employee a month, often with a £25 to £50 minimum
- VAT returns: about £40 to £150 a quarter
- A director's Self Assessment return: about £150 to £400 a year
What an in-house accountant really costs
Salary is only the start. On top of it, an employer pays National Insurance at 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year, and at least 3% in pension contributions on qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270. Then there is recruitment, equipment, software, holiday cover and management time. Some small employers can claim the Employment Allowance, which reduces their National Insurance bill by up to £10,500 a year.
As an example, on a £40,000 salary the employer's National Insurance is £5,250 and the minimum pension contribution is about £1,013. That makes about £46,263 a year, or £3,855 a month, before recruitment fees and overheads. It's why we quote a typical UK in-house cost of £4,500 or more a month for an accountant and £3,000 or more for a bookkeeper once everything else is included.
What a dedicated offshore accountant costs
A StaffLink accountant costs from £1,250 a month and a bookkeeper from £1,000, full time, on a monthly rolling contract. That price covers their salary, employment, equipment and workspace in Pakistan. They work UK hours inside your own software.
It isn't a replacement for a practice. You'll usually still want an accountant to sign off year-end accounts and tax returns. What it replaces is the day-to-day work that practices bill by the hour and employees do in-house: bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, month-end and management accounts. Our pricing page sets out what's included.
Which option costs least for you?
The honest rule is workload. If your finance work fills a full working week, a full-time person costs less per hour than a practice billing the same hours. If it fills a few hours a month, the practice wins.
- A few transactions a month and one tax return: a practice on a fixed fee.
- A limited company with a part-time workload: a practice package with bookkeeping, or a part-time bookkeeper.
- A full-time finance workload, or a practice with more client work than staff: a dedicated offshore accountant or bookkeeper.