Sole trader self assessment- accountant needed/

sidneyyoungblood

A bit of advice please  .

I am a soletrader selling online through ETSY and a couple of other selling sites . 
 

I pay an accountant £280 to check over all my spreadsheets  , bank statements I have sent and then they submit it through self assessment  .

I sell mostly through etsy  and keep a track of all the costs on a spreadsheet which calculates all the fees , profits and expenses . 

Is an accountant really needed or for peace of mind better to stick with them in case I miss something . If any issues do arise does the HRMC look more favourably if I have paid for an accountant to check over the filles? . 

  

justwhat

Ditch the accountant. Not worth the hassle. You should be able to do your accounts and submit SE forms yourself.

HMRC are not going to take a hardline approach if you make a genuine mistake.

QrizB

sidneyyoungblood said:

Is an accountant really needed or for peace of mind better to stick with them in case I miss something . If any issues do arise does the HRMC look more favourably if I have paid for an accountant to check over the filles?

How good are you with numbers? Are you confident that your spreadsheets are accurate? How many questions does your accountant ask about your files, and how many errors do they find, before they submit your SA tax return?

If you're confident and your accountant isn't finding errors, you can probably do it all yourself. If you're not confident and/or your accountant has lots of questions for you, you might want to continue using them.

DullGreyGuy

Self assessment, as its name may suggest, is intended to be simple enough for you to do yourself. Presumably you are doing cash accounting, which also makes things easier. 

Unless you have complex arrangements then it's unlikely to be economical. There are certain advantages, if you make a mistake (like when I paid my VAT payment to HMRC's PAYE account) then accountants have a bit of a hotline to HMRC rather than you having to spend an hour plus on the call waiting to get through but that sort of thing doesnt happen often enough to warrant the annual fees alone. 

Bookworm225

is this your sole source of income?
bear in mind the self assessment is for everything, not just your ETSY business.
are you comfortable with all other aspects of income tax?

as others have said, if your spreadsheet produces few questions from the accountant then your sole trader accounts are more than capable of DIY

sidneyyoungblood

Thanks for all the advice ... it is my sole income , I use a spreadsheet which calculates all the profits and loses at the end of the year , then a mileage log plus my bank interest .. I was happy to pay before for the peace of mind of having someone double check it but the accountant cost has doubled in the last 2 years . 


Is there any websites which allow me to run through all the calculations before submitting to see if I go through last years accounts if I could have done it myself .. 

uknick

@sidneyyoungblood how much is your annual turnover/income?

From April 2026 Making Tax Digital (MTD) comes in for sole traders with annual trading income exceeding £50k.  From April 2027 it drops that threshold to £30k.  Who knows how low it will drop after that?

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment for sole traders and landlords - GOV.UK

The headline impact of MTD is a quarterly tax return followed by an annual one at the end of the year; 5 in total for your tax year.  Apart from the extra returns the main issue for traders is that HMRC insist you use commercial software to submit the returns.  An accountant will have access to such software as part of their tools.  

Prior to MTD the answer to your original question would have been do it yourself as you don't really need an accountant.  But now?

 

SVaz

£10 a month will get you an accounting package, or Freeagent is free to use with a free Mettle business account.
It’s all online, you upload screenshots of receipts etc.  / create invoices/  match bank or paypal payments and it’s all automatically put into your self assessment details.
Couldn’t be easier.