- Accountancy fees for a UK limited company typically run from around £60 to £250 or more a month, and the biggest driver is how complex your company is, not who you hire.
- Companies House filing fees, such as the £50 confirmation statement, are statutory costs that stay the same whoever does your accounts, so they should never be dressed up as part of an accountant’s fee.
- The cheapest plan is not always the cheapest outcome, because catch-up bookkeeping, a director’s tax return, and missed-deadline penalties are the costs that quietly get added on top.
The cost of a limited company accountant usually falls between £60 and £250 or more a month, which works out at roughly £800 to £3,000 a year depending on how much work your company needs. A dormant or single-director company with clean records sits at the bottom of that range. Add VAT, payroll, and a director’s tax return and you move up it fast.
There’s no single “going rate”, and anyone who quotes you one without asking about your company is guessing. What you’ll pay comes down to complexity, not postcode or brand. If you’d rather see fixed inclusions than a vague range, our current plans and what’s included lay it out plainly.
How much does an accountant cost in the UK, monthly and annually?
Most UK limited companies pay between £60 and £250 a month, and it helps to see that as both a monthly and an annual number, because accountants quote it both ways. As a yearly figure, basic compliance sits around £800 to £1,500, while a full service with VAT, payroll, and planning runs to £3,000 or more.
The monthly framing is the more common one now, because fixed monthly packages have largely replaced the old once-a-year bill. Here’s how the two line up.
Service level | Monthly | Annual |
Basic year-end compliance | £65 to £125 | £800 to £1,500 |
Standard package (VAT, payroll, bookkeeping) | £125 to £250 | £1,500 to £3,000 |
Full service (management accounts, planning) | £250+ | £3,000+ |
Whichever way it’s quoted, the monthly accountant cost in the UK reflects the same underlying work. A yearly price divided by twelve isn’t a discount, it’s the same fee in a different wrapper.
What “basic compliance” actually buys
Basic compliance is the floor. It covers your statutory year-end accounts, the Corporation Tax return (CT600), and filing your confirmation statement with Companies House. At the lower end you’re getting a reactive service that files what’s due when it’s due, with little proactive advice.
That’s genuinely fine for a simple company. Just know what it doesn’t include, which is the part we’ll come to below.
What actually drives the price of a limited company accountant
The price of a limited company accountant is driven by the volume and complexity of the work, not by some fixed tariff. Two companies with identical turnover can pay very different fees if one has clean digital records and the other turns up with a carrier bag of receipts.
Here’s what moves your quote up or down.
- Transaction volume: more invoices, expenses, and bank lines mean more bookkeeping, which is the single biggest cost lever.
- VAT registration: once you’re VAT registered, quarterly returns and Making Tax Digital compliance add ongoing work.
- Payroll headcount: running payroll for yourself is cheap. Running it for a team, with pensions and starters and leavers, is not.
- Number of income streams: trading income plus rental plus investments means more to untangle at year end.
- Quality of your records: tidy books in Xero or QuickBooks cost less to work with than a shoebox. Simple as that.
- Whether you need the director’s return: many cheaper plans quote for the company only and bill your personal self assessment fees separately.
Does location still matter?
Less than it used to. Online accounting has flattened the old regional gap, though London and the South East firms still tend to charge a premium of roughly 20% to 40% over practices elsewhere, largely for office overheads rather than better work.
If you want a fuller picture of every outgoing, not just the accountancy fee, we’ve mapped the full cost of running a limited company in a separate guide.
Limited company accountant cost by how complex your company is
The clearest way to picture what you’ll pay is by company complexity, because that’s what an accountant is really pricing. The four bands below show the typical shape of the market. Treat them as reasoned bands, not survey figures, since genuine market averages for this are thin and anyone presenting a precise “average” is usually estimating too.
Company type | What the work involves | Typical monthly band |
Dormant company | Dormant accounts and confirmation statement only, no trading activity | £15 to £40 |
Single director, no payroll, not VAT registered | Year-end accounts, Corporation Tax return, light bookkeeping | £60 to £120 |
Company with payroll and VAT | Above, plus director payroll, quarterly VAT returns, regular bookkeeping | £120 to £250 |
Multiple income streams or investors | Above, plus management accounts, multiple returns, tax planning | £250+ |
Where most small companies land
Most owner-managed limited companies sit in the middle two bands. If you’re a one-person company that isn’t VAT registered, you’re likely looking at the £60 to £120 range for full year-end compliance and a bit of support. That’s the heart of typical small company accounting fees.
Once you register for VAT or take on staff, you’re into the £120 to £250 band, because the ongoing quarterly and monthly work is the part that adds up. The jump isn’t the accountant being greedy. It’s genuinely more filing.
What’s usually not included in a limited company accountant’s fee
A headline monthly fee rarely covers everything, and the gap between the advertised price and the real price is where people get caught out. Before you compare quotes, check what sits outside the number.
- Catch-up bookkeeping for prior periods, if you’re switching accountants or behind on your records.
- The director’s self assessment, which cheaper plans often quote separately from the company work.
- Registered office or business address services, usually a bolt-on.
- Confirmation statement filing fees, which some firms pass through and others absorb.
- R&D or investment relief claims, which are specialist and priced as extras.
When you get a quote, ask one question, "what would I be billed for on top of this?" The answer tells you more than the headline price does. A cheaper plan with three add-ons often works out more expensive than an all-in fee.
If you want the detail on switching without paying twice, what our accounting service covers spells out where the lines sit.
What do the common add-ons cost on their own?
The individual services that bundle into a package have their own standalone market rates, and knowing them helps you judge whether a bundle is fair value. If a plan’s add-ons cost more separately than a rival’s all-in fee, that tells you something.
Add-on service | Typical standalone cost |
Bookkeeping | £20 to £50 per hour, or £150+ a month outsourced |
Payroll | £4 to £12 per employee a month, often a £25 to £50 minimum |
VAT returns | £40 to £150 per quarter |
Director’s self assessment | £150 to £400 a year |
Hourly ad hoc accountant time | £125 to £300 per hour |
These are market ranges, not Sleek’s prices, and they shift with complexity. Use them to sense-check a quote rather than as a fixed tariff.
The fees that aren’t accountancy fees at all
Some costs get lumped into “the cost of an accountant” when they’re actually statutory Companies House fees you’d pay regardless of who does your books. These are fixed by the regulator and identical whether you file yourself or an accountant files for you.
Companies House fees changed on 1 February 2026. The current digital fees are below.
Companies House filing | Current digital fee |
Incorporation (standard) | £100 |
Incorporation (same day, software only) | £156 |
Confirmation statement | £50 |
Voluntary strike off | £13 |
So if an accountant’s quote bundles “the £50 confirmation statement” into your fee, that’s not their charge, it’s the government’s. Worth knowing so you can tell a service fee from a pass-through cost. We’ve broken down Companies House fees in full if you want the complete schedule.
Fixed fee or hourly: which should you want?
For a limited company, a fixed monthly fee is almost always the better structure, because it makes your costs predictable and removes the anxiety of the clock running every time you email a question. You know the number, you budget for it, and you actually pick up the phone when you need to.
Hourly billing has its place for one-off or unpredictable work, but for ongoing compliance it creates the wrong incentive. At £125 to £300 an hour for a qualified accountant, you end up rationing contact with your own accountant to keep the bill down, which is exactly when things get missed.
When hourly still makes sense
Hourly can suit a genuinely one-off job, like a single piece of restructuring advice or a historical clean-up, where nobody can sensibly predict the hours in advance. Outside those cases, fixed fee wins for most companies.
When the cheapest limited company accountant costs more
A cut-price accountant can end up the most expensive option, and it’s worth being concrete about how. The failure isn’t usually a dramatic one. It’s small things compounding.
- Missed deadlines. If filing slips, the penalties are real and automatic. Companies House charges £150 for accounts up to a month late, £375 for one to three months, £750 for three to six months, and £1,500 beyond six months. File late two years running and it doubles.
- Nobody chasing your records. Cheap plans are often self-service, so if you don’t send everything in, nothing happens until it’s suddenly urgent and expensive.
- Add-ons you didn’t budget for. The £40 plan becomes £110 once the director’s return and bookkeeping get billed.
- No review. Errors that a human would catch slip through, and fixing them later costs more than doing them right first time.
We’ve covered what late filing actually costs in more detail, because the penalty regime is where the false economy usually bites.
Could you just do your own limited company accounts?
You can legally prepare and file your own limited company accounts, and for a genuinely simple company it can be the right call. There’s no law requiring you to use an accountant, and both HMRC and Companies House let you file directly, often at no cost beyond the statutory fees.
It tends to work when your company is straightforward: a single director, no employees, not VAT registered, low transaction volume, and you’re comfortable with the software and the deadlines. A dormant company is the clearest case of all, where DIY is usually sensible.
Where DIY starts to cost you
It stops being sensible once complexity creeps in. VAT, payroll, multiple income streams, or investment relief claims are where mistakes get expensive and a real accountant earns their fee.
The honest test is your own confidence and time. If you’d spend a weekend a quarter stressed about whether you’ve got the Corporation Tax computation right, the fee buys back that time and the reassurance that someone qualified is accountable for it. For the fuller comparison, more UK business guides cover the DIY route by company type.
So what should you pay an accountant?
What you should pay an accountant is the fee that matches your company’s real complexity, with nothing padded in for work you don’t need and nothing important quietly left out. For most owner-managed companies in 2026 that’s somewhere in the £60 to £250 a month range.
Below about £60 a month you’re usually buying compliance-only, with the bookkeeping left to you and little chance to speak to a qualified person. Above £250 you should be getting genuine planning and advice, not just bookkeeping with a markup. The right number is the one where the inclusions line up with what your company actually does.
How Sleek helps with limited company accounting costs
Choosing an accountant comes down to matching the fee to what your company actually needs, and being clear-eyed about what sits on top of the headline number. The right answer is the one that covers your real complexity without paying for work you don’t need.
Sleek gives you a qualified, in-house accountant rather than outsourced admin, with fixed monthly fees and the inclusions listed up front. You see what you’re paying for, and you get a real person who’s accountable for your filings.
Disclaimer: The preceding information is not legal advice. This content is aimed to provide general guidance. For more formal or legal advice, contact Sleek directly.
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FAQs on limited company accountant cost
How much does an accountant cost for a small limited company?
For a small limited company, expect roughly £60 to £120 a month for full year-end compliance if you’re a single director who isn’t VAT registered. The figure rises once you add VAT, payroll, or your personal tax return. A dormant company costs far less, often £15 to £40 a month, since there’s no trading activity to account for.
How much does an accountant cost per month in the UK?
Most UK limited companies pay between £60 and £250 a month, with the exact figure set by complexity rather than a standard rate. Simple single-director companies sit at the lower end. Companies with payroll, VAT, and multiple income streams sit higher. Monthly fixed fees are the norm and are usually cheaper over a year than one-off hourly billing.
Is it cheaper to do my own limited company accounts?
Sometimes. For a dormant or very simple company, DIY can save the whole fee, since you can file directly with Companies House and HMRC yourself. It stops being cheaper once VAT, payroll, or reliefs are involved, because a single mistake or missed deadline can cost more than a year of fees. Weigh the saving against your time and confidence.
What’s included in a limited company accounting package?
A standard package usually covers year-end statutory accounts, the Corporation Tax return, and some bookkeeping support. Mid-tier plans add director payroll and quarterly VAT returns. What’s often excluded is the director’s personal self assessment, catch-up bookkeeping, and specialist claims. Always check the inclusions line by line, because two plans at the same price can cover very different work.
Do accountants charge extra for the director’s tax return?
Often, yes. Many cheaper limited company plans quote for the company’s accounts only and bill the director’s personal self assessment as a separate fee, typically £150 to £400 a year. More comprehensive packages fold it in. When comparing quotes, confirm whether your personal return is included, because it’s one of the most common hidden extras.
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Are Companies House fees included in an accountant’s fee?
Not really, because they aren’t accountancy fees at all. Companies House charges statutory fees, such as £50 for the digital confirmation statement, that you’d pay whoever files for you. Some accountants pass these through on your invoice and others absorb them, but the fee itself is the government’s, not the accountant’s. Ask which approach your accountant takes so you can compare like for like.
Do I pay more if my bookkeeping is behind?
Yes. Catch-up bookkeeping for prior periods is usually billed on top of your regular fee, and the further behind you are, the more it costs. If you’re switching accountants with months of unreconciled records, expect a one-off charge to bring things current. Keeping records tidy in software as you go is the cheapest way to avoid this entirely.
