Frequently asked questions

eba is a firm of ICAEW chartered accountants based in Knutsford, Cheshire. The firm was founded by David Elliott in 2001 and works with owner managed businesses, mostly across Cheshire, Manchester and the North West, though a good number of clients are elsewhere in the UK. The team of thirteen covers accounts, tax, VAT, bookkeeping, payroll and advisory work. eba works with founders who want an accountant involved in the decisions, not just the filings.

eba is based at Ground Floor, Rear Barn, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 0SR. The office is in Knutsford town, a few minutes from junction 19 of the M6 and junction 7 of the M56. Most clients are within an hour of the office, across Cheshire, Greater Manchester and the North West, but the firm works with businesses throughout the UK and meetings can be held in person or by video.

Yes. eba is regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and is listed on the ICAEW Find a Chartered Accountant register. The legal entity is EBA Group Limited, company number 06700320, VAT number 944373214. Chartered status means the firm is bound by ICAEW professional standards, holds professional indemnity insurance, and is subject to practice assurance monitoring. It is worth checking for any firm you are considering, because "accountant" on its own is not a protected title in the UK.

eba works mainly with owner managed limited companies, typically turning over between £250,000 and £10 million, across professional services, construction, trades, e-commerce, manufacturing, property and technology. The common thread is not sector but intent: owners who want to grow, who want to understand their numbers, and who are heading somewhere specific, including a sale. eba also looks after the personal tax affairs of the directors behind those companies.

eba has a team of thirteen, which is a deliberate size. It is small enough that the person doing your accounts knows your business and answers the phone, and large enough to carry specialists in payroll, personal tax, bookkeeping and advisory rather than asking one generalist to do all of it. eba is not trying to become the biggest firm in Cheshire. The aim is to be the one clients would recommend without hesitating.

eba was founded in 2001 by David Elliott, who qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 1990 and remains Founder and Managing Partner. Mike Scott is Senior Partner and runs delivery and firm processes. Jonny Elliott is Business Development Director, covering operations, people, client experience and growth. It is a family founded practice, still independent, with no private equity ownership and no consolidator behind it.

eba's Core compliance package starts from £300 per month plus VAT for a limited company. That covers annual accounts, corporation tax, Companies House filings, VAT returns and the director's personal tax return. Insights and Partner cost more because they add reporting, management accounts, forecasting and strategic work, and are quoted on scope after a conversation. Specialist one off work is quoted per engagement. Every fee is agreed before any work starts.

Monthly by Direct Debit. Ongoing packages are spread across twelve payments rather than arriving as one bill after the year end, which makes the cost predictable and keeps it in your cash flow rather than out of it. Specialist eba Plus work is quoted as a fixed fee per engagement and agreed before the work begins. eba does not bill in surprise time units for phone calls.

No. Day to day queries are part of your package. eba takes the view that an accountant you are afraid to ring is not much use, and that the questions clients hesitate over are usually the ones worth catching early. If a question turns into a genuine piece of specialist work, for example a restructuring exercise or a detailed tax planning report, that is scoped and quoted separately, and you agree the fee before it starts.

Because the two are different products. A low cost online service files your accounts and tax return, and for a straightforward company that may be all you need. eba gives you a named chartered accountant who knows your business, works to ICAEW standards, and gets involved in decisions before they happen rather than reporting on them afterwards. If price is the deciding factor, an online service is the honest recommendation. If you want advice, eba is the better fit.

Switching takes one form from you and around two to four weeks of work at our end. You tell your current accountant you are leaving, eba writes to them for professional clearance and requests your records, and we handle the HMRC agent authorisations and Companies House changes. You do not need to have an awkward conversation about why, and you do not need to wait for a year end. Most clients underestimate how straightforward it is.

Yes. There is no rule requiring you to wait for a year end or a tax year to change accountants, and no penalty for switching mid year. Your outgoing accountant is professionally obliged to hand over your records and respond to a clearance letter. The only practical consideration is timing around an imminent filing deadline, where it is usually cleaner to let the current accountant finish that piece before the handover.

There are three steps. First, a conversation about your business, what is working and what is not. Second, a written quote with a fixed monthly fee and a clear scope. Third, onboarding: anti money laundering and identity checks, Direct Debit set up, HMRC authorisations, records transferred from your previous accountant, and an introduction to the people who will look after you. You get a named accountant, not a general inbox.

eba is a Xero accredited practice and Xero is the default recommendation for most clients. The firm also works with QuickBooks, Sage and FreeAgent where clients are already established on them, and will tell you honestly if a migration is worth the disruption or not. If you are on spreadsheets and want to stay there, eba will say so if that is genuinely fine for your size, and say so if it is not.

Yes. Every client has a named accountant who owns the relationship and knows the business. Behind them sits the wider team, so payroll goes to the payroll specialists and personal tax goes to the personal tax team, but you are not passed around and you are not explaining your business again every time you make contact. If your named accountant is away, someone who knows your file picks it up.

Yes, both. eba runs payroll for client businesses, including RTI submissions, pensions auto enrolment, statutory payments and year end reporting, handled by two dedicated payroll specialists. Bookkeeping and VAT returns are handled in house by a Xero bookkeeper. Some clients use eba for everything, some keep bookkeeping internal and use eba for the accounts and tax. Both work.

Yes. Exit preparation is part of the Partner package and is also available as standalone eba Plus work. That covers getting the numbers into a state a buyer will trust, cleaning up the balance sheet, identifying and fixing the things that reduce a valuation, tax structuring ahead of a sale, and working alongside your corporate finance adviser and solicitor through the process. The work that improves a sale price usually needs starting two to three years before the sale, not two months.

Yes. Most clients are in Cheshire, Greater Manchester and the North West because that is where the firm is, but eba works with businesses across the UK. Accounts, tax, payroll and bookkeeping are handled digitally, and meetings run by video where in person is not practical. Clients who want to sit across a table can, and clients who would rather not drive to Knutsford do not have to.

The UK VAT registration threshold is £90,000 of taxable turnover in any rolling twelve month period. You must also register if you expect to pass £90,000 within the next thirty days on its own. The key word is rolling: it is not your financial year, it is any twelve consecutive months, which is why businesses growing quickly can cross it without noticing. Registering voluntarily below the threshold can make sense if your customers are VAT registered businesses.

Corporation tax is 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% on profits above £250,000. Between those two figures marginal relief applies, which produces an effective rate on that band of around 26.5%. Those thresholds are divided by the number of associated companies you have, which catches a lot of owners with more than one company. They are also reduced proportionately for accounting periods shorter than twelve months.

It depends on your qualifying income and it is being phased in. Sole traders and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year should have started from 6 April 2026. Above £30,000 in the 2025 to 2026 tax year, you start from 6 April 2027. Above £20,000 in the 2026 to 2027 tax year, you start from 6 April 2028. It means quarterly updates through compatible software rather than one annual return. Partnerships come later, with no date confirmed.

For most owner directors the efficient answer is a modest salary plus dividends, but the right split depends on your profits, your other income, whether the company can claim employment allowance, and what you need personally. A salary set around the National Insurance thresholds preserves your state pension record and is deductible against corporation tax, while dividends are paid from post tax profit at lower personal rates. Pension contributions often beat both. This is a calculation, not a rule of thumb, and it changes when the rates change.

A limited company usually becomes worth it once profits are consistently above roughly £30,000 to £40,000, but tax is only part of the decision. A company gives you limited liability, credibility with larger customers, easier routes to bring in investment or a co-owner, and more control over when you take income. It also brings public filings, more administration and higher accountancy fees. If you are close to the line, run the numbers on your actual figures rather than following a threshold you read somewhere.

Sooner than most people think, and the trigger is usually complexity rather than size. If you have incorporated, taken on staff, crossed the VAT threshold, started holding stock, taken on debt or investment, or you are making decisions where the tax consequences are not obvious, that is the point. Doing it yourself is workable while the business is simple. The cost of getting structure wrong in year one and unwinding it in year four is generally far higher than the fee you saved.

Companies House charges £150 for accounts filed up to one month late, £375 for one to three months, £750 for three to six months, and £1,500 beyond six months, and the penalty doubles if you file late in two consecutive years. That is separate from HMRC penalties for a late corporation tax return, which start at £100. Persistent late filing can lead to the company being struck off and to director disqualification proceedings.

Possibly, but the bar is higher than it was and claims are being scrutinised far more closely. The work has to seek an advance in science or technology and resolve genuine technical uncertainty that a competent professional could not readily work out. Building a website, configuring off the shelf software or launching a new product on its own does not qualify. HMRC has significantly increased compliance activity on R&D claims, so a weak claim now carries real risk. eba will tell you honestly whether yours stands up.

A limited company must keep accounting records for six years from the end of the financial year they relate to, and company registers, including the register of members and the PSC register, for the life of the company. Sole traders keep records for five years after the 31 January self assessment deadline for that tax year. Digital records held in accounting software count, provided they are complete and you can produce them. HMRC can charge penalties for inadequate records regardless of whether tax was underpaid.

A confirmation statement confirms to Companies House that the information it holds about your company is still correct: registered office, directors, shareholders, share capital, people with significant control and your SIC codes. It is due at least once every twelve months, within fourteen days of the end of your review period. It is not the same as your accounts and it is not a tax return. Failing to file one is a criminal offence for the directors and is a common route to a company being struck off.

The reliable levers are structural rather than clever: the right trading structure, an efficient salary and dividend split, pension contributions, using your allowances before the year end rather than after it, claiming capital allowances properly, and timing income and expenditure across accounting periods. For some businesses R&D relief, the Employment Allowance or share schemes apply. What does not work is anything marketed as a scheme with a reference number and a promise. eba does not sell those and will advise you against them.