Tool
What your compliance year costs
Pick how you handle each job. The total uses prices accounting firms and software vendors publish, multiplied by how often the rules make you do it.
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Estimated cost a year
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| Item | Basis | Year |
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Prices advertised by accounting firms and software vendors, listed in the sources below. A "+" means the source publishes a starting price with no upper figure. This is not a quote, and it does not include the tax itself.
Where the multipliers come from
Bookkeeping is priced monthly, so it is multiplied by twelve. VAT returns are multiplied by four because the standard tax period is three calendar months, unless the FTA assigns you a different one. The corporate tax return happens once per tax period.
What the total leaves out
- The tax itself. For that, use the corporate tax calculator.
- One-off work: a first registration, catching up on a year of unreconciled books, a voluntary disclosure.
- Penalties. Amounts are set by Cabinet decision and we do not reproduce them until we can verify the text in force.
Why the ranges are so wide
Firms price on transaction volume, not on your revenue. Two businesses with the same turnover can sit at opposite ends of the same range if one takes card payments through one gateway and the other runs four bank accounts, petty cash and inter-company transfers. When you ask for a quote, send the number of monthly bank lines and invoices. That single detail moves a price more than any other.
Prices here are advertised figures from accounting firms, not offers to you, and this is general information rather than tax advice.