How much does an accountant cost for a limited company?

Most UK limited companies pay between £89 and £289 a month plus VAT for a fixed fee accountancy package. A dormant company costs far less, typically a modest annual fee. A funded company with management accounts, forecasting and board reporting costs more, because it is buying senior time rather than compliance.

Annual-only accounts and a CT600 for a very simple company can be bought for £500 to £900 plus VAT, but that price never includes payroll, VAT returns, bookkeeping or advice during the year.

Turnover is the headline, but the real cost drivers are transaction volume, whether you are VAT registered, how many people are on payroll, how many director Self Assessment returns are included, and the state of your bookkeeping when the year ends.

A company with clean cloud bookkeeping and reconciled bank feeds costs less to serve than one that arrives as a folder of receipts, which is why most firms price bookkeeping separately or insist on doing it.

Sector complexity matters too. Marketplace and payment platform reconciliation, construction industry scheme returns, R&D claims and property disposals all take real time.

Check each of these before comparing quotes: the CT600 itself, director Self Assessment, the confirmation statement and its £34 fee, payroll per employee per month, bookkeeping, VAT return preparation, registered office, and any HMRC enquiry work.

Our packages state exactly what is included and publish the price, which is the entire point of a published fee table. Basic tax advice is free; technical work is quoted before it starts.

Sometimes a cheap fee is simply an efficient firm with good software. Often it is a stripped scope with everything billed as an extra, or a service where nobody checks whether your dividends were legal or whether a relief was missed.

The cost of a single late filing penalty, an unclaimed R&D or capital allowances claim, or an illegal dividend that has to be unwound, comfortably exceeds a year of fee difference. Compare scope and qualifications, not just price.