YF AccountingLast updated: 13 October 2026
10 min read
No. There is no legal requirement for a UK sole trader to have an accountant. You can register for Self Assessment yourself, keep your own records and file your own tax return, and in 2026/27 the first £1,000 of trading income is covered by a tax-free trading allowance. If your turnover is modest, your income is simple and you are organised, doing it yourself is a perfectly reasonable choice.
The more useful question is whether an accountant would save you more than the fee, which for a sole trader is typically £35 to £60 a month. That depends on how much you earn, how many income streams you have, whether Making Tax Digital is about to catch you, and what your evenings are worth. Here is how to decide, with the sales pitch kept for the very end.
The short version
| You can probably manage alone if | It is time to get help if |
|---|---|
| Turnover is under about £20,000 and profit sits well inside the basic rate band | Profit is heading past £35,000, or you cannot predict what your bill will be |
| You have one income stream, no staff, no van and no premises | You have a trade plus rental income, a part-time job, dividends or CIS deductions |
| You already keep a spreadsheet or app up to date every month | Receipts live in a shoebox and the return gets finished on 30 January |
| You are comfortable reading gov.uk and following it | You have had an HMRC letter you did not understand, or a penalty |
| Your qualifying income was under £30,000 in 2025/26 | It was over £30,000, because Making Tax Digital starts for you in April 2027 |
| Turnover is nowhere near £90,000 | Turnover is approaching £90,000 and VAT is on the horizon |
If everything in the left column describes you, read the next section, bookmark it and carry on. If two or more items in the right column apply, the fee is very likely to pay for itself, and the rest of this article explains why.
What you have to do if you go it alone
Nothing here is difficult on its own. The difficulty is remembering all of it, every year, while also running a business. These are the obligations HMRC expects a sole trader to manage, with the 2026/27 figures.
- Register for Self Assessment once your trading income passes £1,000, by 5 October after the end of the tax year you started in. If you began trading in 2025/26, that means by 5 October 2026. Our guide to registering for Self Assessment walks through the form.
- Keep records of every sale and every cost, and hold on to them for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline of the year they relate to.
- File your return and pay by 31 January. For 2025/26 that is 31 January 2027, and the payment covers income tax and Class 4 National Insurance together.
- Make payments on account on 31 January and 31 July once your bill reaches £1,000, unless more than 80% of your tax is already collected at source. Each one is half of last year’s bill, paid in advance.
- Know your rates. The personal allowance is £12,570. You pay 20% up to £50,270, 40% up to £125,140 and 45% above that. Class 4 National Insurance is 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% beyond. Class 2 is treated as paid once profits reach £7,105, and voluntary at £3.65 a week below that if you want to protect your State Pension record.
- Watch the Making Tax Digital thresholds. Quarterly digital updates are already compulsory for sole traders whose 2024/25 qualifying income was over £50,000. The threshold drops to £30,000 of 2025/26 income from 6 April 2027 and £20,000 of 2026/27 income from 6 April 2028.
- Register for VAT within 30 days of the end of the month in which your rolling 12-month taxable turnover passes £90,000.
The real cost of doing it yourself
Filing your own return looks free. In practice it has four costs, and the first one is the expensive one.
Expenses you never claim. Most DIY returns we take over have left money on the table: business mileage at 55p for the first 10,000 miles and 25p after that, the working from home flat rate of £10, £18 or £26 a month, the business share of a phone bill, tools and equipment, insurance, subscriptions and training. Every £1,000 of unclaimed expenses costs a basic rate sole trader £260 in tax and National Insurance. Our list of allowable expenses for the self-employed shows how much there is to miss.
Penalties. File one day after 31 January and the fine is £100, even if you owe nothing. After three months it becomes £10 a day up to £900, then 5% of the tax or £300 at six months and again at twelve. Pay late and there is a separate 5% charge at 30 days, six months and twelve months, plus interest. Register late and you may get a failure to notify penalty on top.
The January shock. In your first year of a decent profit, the 31 January payment is not one bill but one and a half: the tax for the year just ended plus your first payment on account towards the next one. People who find this out from their HMRC statement in mid-January tend to ring an accountant the same week. Our article on payments on account explains how they work and when they can be reduced.
Your time. A first return takes most people several hours to a couple of days, plus the weeks of low-level worry beforehand about whether it is right. If you charge £30 an hour and the return eats a weekend, the “free” option has already cost more than a year of fixed fees.
A worked example: Sam the electrician
Sam is a self-employed electrician in his second year. In 2026/27 he invoices £48,000 and claims £9,000 of materials, tools and insurance, giving a profit of £39,000. His return is due by 31 January 2028.
| Sam’s own return | Amount |
|---|---|
| Income tax: (£39,000 less £12,570) at 20% | £5,286.00 |
| Class 4 National Insurance: £26,430 at 6% | £1,585.80 |
| Total for 2026/27 | £6,871.80 |
| First payment on account for 2027/28, due the same day | £3,435.90 |
| Due on 31 January 2028 | £10,307.70 |
Sam has never claimed for his van because he did not keep the fuel receipts. He does not need them: the simplified mileage rate only needs a log of business miles, and his 8,000 miles a year at 55p is a £4,400 deduction. He also quotes and does his admin at the kitchen table for around 30 hours a month, which is £10 a month under the flat rate, and about £240 of his phone bill is business use. That is £4,760 of missed expenses, worth £1,237.60 in tax and National Insurance at 26%.
A sole trader package at £35 a month costs Sam £420 a year, and part of that is itself deductible. On those three items alone he is roughly £800 better off after paying the fee, before anyone has mentioned the pension contribution that would cut his bill further, or the conversation about whether a limited company now makes sense. Multiply the figures by however many years the van has gone unclaimed.
What an accountant actually does for a sole trader
The tax return is the least of it. A good sole trader accountant prepares your accounts and files the return, but the value is in what happens around it: checking every expense category so nothing is missed, choosing between the trading allowance and actual costs, claiming capital allowances on a van or equipment, telling you your bill months before it is due so you can set money aside, reducing payments on account when a quieter year is coming, replying to HMRC letters, handling the Making Tax Digital quarterly updates when they apply to you, and telling you plainly when you have outgrown being a sole trader. Our comparison of sole trader vs limited company shows where that line usually falls. When you reach it, our company formation service sets the company up properly on a fixed fee.
On cost, UK accountants charge sole traders anywhere from £25 to £60 a month, or a one-off fee for a single return that is often £150 to £400. Our breakdown of what an accountant costs in 2026 covers the ranges in detail. At YF Accounting a sole trader package starts at £35 a month on a fixed fee, published on our pricing page.
Four tipping points where DIY stops paying
- Profits above about £35,000. The higher rate band starts at £50,270, pension contributions start to matter, and the sole trader versus limited company question becomes a real one with real money attached. This is where planning, rather than filing, earns its fee.
- Making Tax Digital arrives. If your qualifying income was over £30,000 in 2025/26, from 6 April 2027 you will send HMRC a digital update every quarter plus a final declaration: five submissions a year instead of one, from approved software. Over £20,000 in 2026/27 puts you in from April 2028. Most full-time sole traders will be in within two years.
- Turnover approaching £90,000. VAT registration has a 30-day clock, a scheme choice that can be worth thousands, and a quarterly return of its own. Our guide to registering for VAT explains the timing.
- Life gets more complicated. A rental property alongside the trade, a part-time job, CIS deductions to reclaim, a subcontractor you pay, a van bought on finance, a loss to carry forward, or a year abroad. Each is manageable; together they are where mistakes happen.
The middle way: you do the bookkeeping, we do the rest
This is how most of our sole trader clients work, and it is the cheapest way to get an accountant’s judgement without paying for hours you do not need. You use bookkeeping software such as Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent with a bank feed, photograph receipts as you go, and spend twenty minutes a week keeping it tidy. We review the figures, pick up anything missed, prepare the return, tell you the bill in advance and file it. When Making Tax Digital applies, the same software sends the quarterly updates. If you have not chosen software yet, our comparison of Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent will help.
Working with YF Accounting as a sole trader
Our sole trader and Self Assessment service is a fixed monthly fee from £35, agreed in writing before any work starts. It covers your accounts, your tax return, a full expenses review, your Making Tax Digital quarterly updates once they apply, and unlimited support in between, so a quick question about a van or a rental property never turns into an invoice. You deal with one person, Yoni Finke FCCA, throughout. If you already have an accountant and want to move, switching takes one email and we handle the handover.
Frequently asked questions
Can I do my own Self Assessment tax return as a sole trader?
Yes. HMRC’s online service is free, and if you have one income stream, tidy records and a profit inside the basic rate band, it is a reasonable job to do yourself. The risks are missed expenses, a late filing penalty of £100 rising to £900 and more, and the payments on account surprise in your first profitable year. If any of those has already happened to you, that is usually the point at which a fixed fee starts to look cheap.
At what income should a sole trader get an accountant?
There is no rule, but in practice the fee pays for itself for most sole traders once profits pass £30,000 to £35,000 or turnover passes £50,000. At that level the tax at stake on a missed claim is larger than the fee, the higher rate band and pension planning come into play, and Making Tax Digital is either already in force or about to be. Below that, the deciding factor is complexity rather than income: two or more income sources, a van, staff or subcontractors tip the balance regardless of turnover.
Do I need an accountant for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax?
No, you can send the quarterly updates yourself from HMRC-recognised software. What changes is the workload: four updates a year plus a final declaration, each from digital records, with penalty points for late updates after the first year. Many sole traders find that once they are paying for the software anyway, having an accountant review each quarter and handle the year end costs little more and removes the deadlines from their head. Our Making Tax Digital guide explains what is involved.
Are accountant’s fees tax deductible for a sole trader?
Mostly. Fees for preparing your business accounts, bookkeeping and tax advice about the business are allowable expenses. HMRC’s guidance excludes the cost of preparing and submitting the personal Self Assessment return itself, so in practice the business part of the fee is deducted and a small personal element is not. Your accountant will split it correctly on the return.
What does YF Accounting charge a sole trader, and how do I get started?
Sole trader packages start at £35 a month, fixed and agreed in writing before we start, with your Self Assessment return, expenses review, Making Tax Digital updates and unlimited support included. Getting started is a free call, a fixed quote on the spot, and one HMRC authorisation form; if you are moving from another accountant we handle the handover. The full package details are on our Self Assessment service page and every fee is on the pricing page.
If you have read this far and are still not sure, the free call is the quickest way to find out. Tell us your turnover and what your income looks like and we will tell you straight whether you need us yet. YF Accounting works on fixed fees agreed before any work starts: sole traders from £35 a month, limited companies from £50 a month and growing businesses from £200 a month, with one point of contact and unlimited support included. Book a free call, phone 0161 531 0959, or compare plans on our pricing page.
Founder of YF Accounting, a fixed-fee, fully digital accountancy practice in Manchester serving SMEs, sole traders and landlords across the UK. One point of contact, unlimited support, no surprise bills.
Related reading
What Does a Fractional CFO Do, and When Does Your Business Need One?
Your First Tax Return: Exactly What Your Accountant Needs From You (2025/26)
Register for Self Assessment by 5 October 2026: Last Call for 2025/26This article is part of our Self Assessment guide. See the full topic for related reads.