How much does an accountant cost in the UK?
There is no standard UK accountant fee: the meaningful comparison is the same written scope for the same period. Ask each firm to separate recurring compliance, cleanup work, software, advice and one-off filings, and confirm whether VAT is included.
Last reviewed: 3 September 2026 · Editorial policy
What affects the fee
Fees depend on record quality, transaction volume, deadlines, number of services, software setup, staff payroll, VAT complexity, and whether you need advice or just filing.
- Self Assessment only
- Company accounts and Corporation Tax
- Monthly bookkeeping and VAT returns
- Payroll and pension administration
- Specialist advice such as R&D, IR35, property, or international tax
Ask for scope, not just price
A cheap quote can become expensive if bookkeeping, software, HMRC correspondence, payroll year end, or advisory calls are excluded. Ask for a written scope before comparing fees.
Build a like-for-like brief
Before requesting prices, describe the business and the work in numbers: legal structure, annual turnover, transaction volume, number of bank and payment accounts, employees, VAT returns, currencies, sales channels and current bookkeeping software. Attach a deadline calendar and state whether the records are reconciled.
A sole trader with one bank account and clean quarterly records is a different job from a limited company with payroll, stock, overseas sales and a year of unreconciled transactions. A quote cannot be meaningfully compared until those differences are visible.
Separate recurring and one-off work
Ask the proposal to price ordinary recurring work separately from onboarding, historic cleanup, software migration, company formation, tax investigations and advisory projects. This prevents an attractive monthly headline from hiding a large setup bill or important exclusions.
- Which filings and how many submissions are included
- Whether bookkeeping, payroll changes and software subscriptions are included
- Who answers routine questions and whether meetings are limited
- The price of late records, corrections, extra employees or additional transactions
- Whether the quote includes VAT and how long the price is fixed
Compare service risk as well as price
Ask who will perform and review the work, what qualifications or licences are relevant, how the firm protects client money and data, and whether professional indemnity insurance applies. HMRC advises checking experience, professional-body membership, terms, fees and reputation before appointing a tax agent.
You remain responsible for your tax affairs even when an agent files for you. Never sign a blank return or share your own HMRC sign-in credentials. Review the final figures and keep a copy of the engagement letter and filed documents.
A practical quote-comparison test
Give the same brief to three suitable firms and put their responses into columns: included work, exclusions, delivery dates, contact model, qualifications, total first-year cost and likely second-year cost. The cheapest suitable proposal may still win, but you will know it is cheaper for the same outcome rather than a smaller scope.