What information do you need to submit to your accountant?

Finding an accountant with a proactive approach and accurate advice is key. With the right information and effective planning, they can maximise your tax efficiency with no surprises at the end of your tax year – but, what will they need from you?

In this article we take a look at how you can be best placed to provide the accountant what they need – help them, help you!

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Companies House correspondence

To enable your accountant to liaise with HMRC and Companies House on your behalf regarding your personal tax affairs, and/or those of your company, you’ll need to provide copies or forward any correspondence from them onto your accountant. This includes letters containing your unique tax reference (UTR), your limited company UTR, PAYE details, tax codes and so on. If mail isn’t forwarded on correctly or in a timely manner, areas can be missed, resulting in long term errors. So consider maybe using your accountants address as your registered office if you don’t want the hassle.

Personal Tax Information

Ensure you provide details of your personal income to your accountant in a timely manner. It seems an obvious statement, but we know what it’s like – amongst all your deadlines to meet – this one is looming in the distance so leaving it until January is all too tempting. By providing your accountant the detail they need as early as you can it’s fresh in your mind, so any questions that crop up about your income won’t be a distant memory, and you’ll be clear on the tax you need to pay, with enough time to pay it, avoiding any late penalties from HMRC. What’s more, with this insight your accountant can give you valuable tax advice, keeping you ahead of the game.

Your personal tax return for income in the last tax year (as well as the subsequent payment due) must be submitted and paid by the following 31^st January. For example, for income earned between 6 April 2022 and 5 April 2023, the deadline is 31^st January 2024.

We send our clients reminders with a simple questionnaire to complete so we can gather all we need for details of their income, including pensions, dividends, savings and rental income as well as capital gains and details of any student loan repayments.

Where relevant, we would also ask for any P11d if they are employed, P45 if they have left employment during that tax year and P60 if they continued to be employed during that year.

If you’re wondering whether you need to submit personal tax returns, see HMRC’s guide.

Company Income and Expenditure and Financial Records

Your accountant will need details of your company’s expenses and income to calculate the profit and subsequently the tax owed. For limited companies, information is used from the company’s financial records at the end of the financial year to prepare your company’s annual accounts, which are then submitted to HMRC and Companies House. Separately, a company tax return is to be submitted to HMRC – this is used to calculate how much Corporation Tax is owed by looking at the profit and loss.

To prepare and file both above, your accountant would need visibility of records such as:

• Loan and credit card statements
• Purchases
• Sales records
• Finance agreements for example; lease cars or mobile phones and company bank statements.

It is a legal requirement for limited companies to have a separate company bank account (because the director and company are classed as separate legal entities, and as such the finances of each are kept separate). We would recommend having a company bank account that feeds directly into accounting software. This gives both you and your accountant a real-time view on profit and loss, enabling much more effective and proactive tax planning. The accountant will then need to see a final bank statement before the financial year end to check that the final balance matches, as the transactions would already have been accounted for using the software.

Integro Accounting is a platinum partner of leading book-keeping accounting software FreeAgent, which we include as standard in our monthly accountancy packages.

Payroll Records

As you are ‘employed’ by your company, in order to take a salary, your company needs to be registered as an employer for PAYE (Pay As You Earn). HMRC will require monthly payroll submissions via their payroll software allowing the ‘employer’ to tell HMRC what the employees are being paid and allow for tax and NI deductions to be calculated and reported. For your accountant to manage this on your behalf, they’ll need your PAYE references.

VAT Returns

If your company is VAT registered, your accountant will need to know your VAT registration details to act on your behalf with HMRC. They’ll need to see a copy of your VAT registration certificate, and once authorised they’ll be able to submit the VAT returns either quarterly or annually depending on how your VAT scheme has been set up. These VAT returns are now required to be submitted through HMRC authorised Making Tax Digital (MTD) software – here at Integro Accounting we manage this for our clients through

We hope this article has helped clarify the roles and responsibilities that lie between contractor and accountant and the detail that your accountant will ask for to ensure they can offer you the best service possible.

If you’d like to find out more about our services and how we can help you call 0207 096 2659 or book a call back request to speak to a fully qualified accountant at your convenience.