Accountants in
Norfolk

Companies House penalties are automatic and are not waived for being nearly on time: £150 up to one month late, £375 up to three months, £750 up to six months and £1,500 beyond that. They double if you also filed late in the previous year.

HMRC applies its own separate penalties for a late corporation tax return, starting at £100. Persistent late filing can also lead to the company being struck off.

19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% on profits over £250,000. Between those figures marginal relief applies, which produces an effective marginal rate of 26.5% on the profits falling in the band.

Both thresholds are divided by the number of associated companies. If you control two companies, the small profits limit becomes £25,000 each, which frequently surprises people who set up a second company for a side venture.

If you draw a salary, yes. You need a PAYE scheme and RTI submissions even where the salary is below the threshold at which tax and National Insurance become payable, because it is the reporting that is required rather than the payment.

Most director-only companies pay a salary set around the National Insurance thresholds because it is deductible against corporation tax and preserves a qualifying year for the State Pension. That still needs reporting properly.

As a sole trader subcontractor, the deductions suffered during the year are offset against your Self Assessment liability, and any excess is refunded. Because deductions are taken before expenses, most subcontractors end up owed money.

Limited company subcontractors reclaim differently, by offsetting CIS suffered against their PAYE liabilities through the payroll system rather than waiting for a year-end refund. We handle whichever route applies to you.

Monthly for most businesses. It is the point at which the work is still small enough to be quick and recent enough that you remember what things were. Quarterly can work for very low-volume businesses, and will become the practical minimum for anyone inside MTD.

Annual bookkeeping is the expensive option. Reconstructing a year takes longer, produces worse information, and reliably loses expenses that nobody can identify twelve months later.

20% for subcontractors registered under CIS, 30% for unregistered ones, and nothing for those holding gross payment status. Deductions apply to the labour element only — materials, plant hire and VAT are excluded, provided the invoice separates them.

The money is not an extra tax. It is an advance payment against the subcontractor’s eventual Income Tax and National Insurance, and it is set against their bill at the end of the year.