Tax Accountant for Sole Traders
Your self-assessment tax, sorted.
Most sole traders file late, overpay, or spend a weekend in January guessing at figures. A chartered accountant monitors your income, expenses and allowances throughout the year — so your tax bill is known well before it is due. Fixed fee. FCMA-qualified. Questions answered the day you ask them.
- Know your tax liability months before the deadline
- Allowable expenses identified and correctly claimed every year
- Self-assessment filed on time with no last-minute scramble
- Bookkeeping off your plate via cloud accounting software
No long-term contract. If it is not working after three months, you leave with clean books and nothing owed.
Get a free quote
Fixed pricing. Same-day reply.
What our clients say
★★★★★
Money Saved More Than Covers Fees
"His fees are very reasonable and the money he has saved me more than covers them."
★★★★★
Above and Beyond for Years
"Niall and his team go above and beyond the duties to provide accounting services but also general advices."
★★★★★
Always on the End of the Phone
"They're always on the end of the phone to advise and assist and provide a top service for our accounting needs."
★★★★★
Welcoming for First-Time Clients
"As a new start up and having never dealt with an accountant, Niall at OD Accountants has been very welcoming and supportive."
Sound familiar?
Still guessing what your tax bill will be?
Many sole traders arrive in January with a box of receipts and no clear idea what they owe. The deadline focuses the mind but by then the planning window has closed. Allowable expenses get missed, payments on account come as a surprise, and the whole thing takes far longer than it should. Which is nobody's idea of a good use of a Sunday.
- Self-assessment filed at the last minute with figures guessed under pressure
- Allowable business expenses missed because no one is keeping track through the year
- No visibility on payments on account until HMRC sends the bill
What on top of things looks like
The tax return is one output of a year-round process, not a January panic. Books kept current through cloud accounting software, expenses tracked correctly, and your tax position known well in advance.
- Self-assessment prepared early, filed correctly, deadline never a concern
- Allowable expenses reviewed and claimed — nothing left on the table
- Payments on account forecasted so cash flow is not caught off guard
- Fixed monthly fee — no surprise invoice at year-end
What sole trader clients say about us
From first-time clients to long-standing sole traders, the pattern in the reviews is consistent: hands-on, available, and fees that pay for themselves.
My other-half introduced me to Niall at OD Accountants and I have to say my finances are so much the better for it. Unlike my previous Accountants, Niall is far more hands-on, available for advice and able to care for me as an individual, rather than a faceless client. His fees are very reasonable and the money he has saved me more than covers them. If you need an Accountant who cares, Niall and OD Chartered Management Accountants are the way to go.
I've been there for years and Niall and his team go above and beyond the duties to provide accounting services but also general advices. They are always available if you need anything while charging very competitive prices. I could not recommend them enough.
Everything a sole trader needs to stay compliant
Self-assessment, bookkeeping and ongoing tax visibility — all on a fixed monthly fee, delivered through cloud accounting software so the records are always current.
Self-Assessment and Personal Tax
Your annual return is prepared from current records, not a year-end scramble. Allowable expenses are reviewed in full, payments on account are forecasted, and the return is filed well before the January deadline. You know your liability before HMRC asks for it.
Included as standardCloud Bookkeeping Through the Year
Income and expenses tracked in real time via Xero and best-of-breed integrations — no shoebox of receipts at year-end. Up-to-date records mean your tax position is always visible, and any VAT threshold proximity is flagged before it becomes an obligation.
Cloud-first deliveryTax Planning and Commercial Advice
A tax return filed on time is compliance. Knowing whether to incorporate, how to extract income efficiently, or when your turnover crosses a threshold that changes things — that is planning. Niall O'Driscoll FCMA, CGMA brings that level of commercial input to sole trader engagements, not just compliance output.
Chartered-level adviceConsistent across industries and client types
From hospitality operators to digital nomads and new businesses, the recurring theme is the same: hands-on, always available, and straightforward.
Supportive, Clear and Genuinely Nice People
“Niall and his team are supportive, clear and directional accountants who have supported our small business staff up. They're always on the end of the phone to advise and assist and provide a top service for our accounting needs. Plus they're just nice people which helps too!!”
Welcoming and Available From Day One
“As a new start up and having never dealt with an accountant, Niall at OD Accountants has been very welcoming and supportive. All our prior queries and issues have been resolved, and he is always available to meet the needs of our team.”
Handled a Tricky Client Without Fuss
“Been with OD Accountants for over a year now. Niall and the team are brilliant. They helped me set up a company and get everything I needed in place to run my business. I'm a tricky client due to my 'digital nomad' status, but their advice…”
What sets this firm apart from a compliance-only practice
Three things that make a practical difference for sole traders — not features, but how they translate into fewer surprises and less time spent on finance.
Your tax position, always visible
Because books are kept current through cloud accounting software rather than updated once a year, your income, expenses and estimated tax are visible at any point. There is no guessing in January and no surprise when the payment on account arrives. That visibility is built into the engagement, not an optional extra.
Questions answered the same day
Sole traders regularly face decisions that need a quick answer — a new contract, an unusual expense, a VAT threshold question. Verified client reviews going back over a decade consistently describe the team as always available and fast to respond. That is not a promise, it is a track record.
Chartered depth without the big-firm distance
Niall O'Driscoll FCMA, CGMA spent over a decade working on restructures and turnarounds for listed companies before founding OD Accountants. That level of commercial experience is brought to sole trader engagements — so when the question is whether to incorporate, how to structure income, or whether a business is growing into a different tax position, the answer is informed by real commercial context, not just compliance convention.
Up and running in four straightforward steps
Most clients are fully onboarded within a week. The process is designed to minimise what is asked of you at the start.
Book a discovery call
A short call to understand your situation — trading activity, current records, what you need and what you do not. No preparation required. You will leave the call with a clear fixed-fee proposal and a sense of exactly what happens next.
Accept the proposal
Fixed monthly fee, agreed scope, no hidden extras. If you have an existing accountant, OD Accountants handles the professional clearance letter. You do not need to manage that conversation yourself.
Onboarding and records migration
Existing records are migrated into the cloud platform. If books are behind or in some state of disarray, a catch-up is scoped and priced separately — it is a common starting point, not a problem. From here, everything runs on a current basis.
Carry on running your business
Books current, tax position visible, self-assessment handled, questions answered when they arise. The parts of running a business that were taking up time and generating low-level anxiety are handled by a chartered firm. Which is, frankly, the way it should be.
“The service from OD has been excellent, as has their advice. It's great to have access to a financial team who can guide us with such confidence and seamlessly integrate with our internal team. We always feel well-informed and confident about our financial processes and data. Highly recommend.”
What sole traders usually ask before starting
Do you only handle the self-assessment return, or is there more to the engagement?
The return is one output of an ongoing engagement, not a standalone service. The engagement covers bookkeeping through the year via cloud accounting software, expenses reviewed and categorised correctly, tax liability monitored in real time, and the return prepared and filed when it is due. The goal is that you know your tax position before January, not during it.
What does it cost, and what is included in the monthly fee?
Pricing is a fixed monthly fee agreed at the outset — no variable charges, no end-of-year invoice for extra work done quietly in the background. The fee is scoped to your specific situation and confirmed in writing before anything starts. Client reviews consistently describe fees as very reasonable, with tax savings that more than cover the cost. A free quote takes about five minutes.
My books are behind and I have not filed my last return yet — can you still help?
Yes. Starting with books in arrears is common. A catch-up is scoped separately from the ongoing monthly engagement, priced clearly upfront, and worked through before moving to a current footing. It is not a reason to delay getting started — in most cases, sorting the backlog is the first and most useful thing to do.
Is there a long-term contract or a minimum term?
No long-term contract. The engagement runs month to month. If it is not working after three months, you leave with clean, current books and nothing owed. The firm has clients with 10+ years of continuous tenure in its verified Google reviews — not because they are locked in, but because the service is worth staying for.
I am approaching the VAT registration threshold — do you monitor that?
Yes. Because books are kept current throughout the year rather than reviewed annually, the VAT threshold is monitored as a matter of course. You will not wake up to a registration obligation you were not expecting. If registration is approaching, the implications for pricing, invoicing and cash flow are worked through in advance so the transition is planned, not reactive.
At what point does it make sense to stop being a sole trader and incorporate?
It depends on profit level, personal circumstances and what you want to do with the income — there is no single threshold at which incorporation always makes sense. As a chartered management accountant, Niall O'Driscoll can model both structures against your actual numbers, including the tax cost of extraction, National Insurance implications and the additional compliance burden of running a limited company. It is a commercial decision, not just a tax one, and it is worth doing the maths before assuming either structure is obviously better.
Related services for sole traders and freelancers
Less guesswork on your tax. More certainty.
Fixed monthly fee, self-assessment handled, books kept current through the year. A chartered accountant who already knows how sole trader tax works — no explaining required.