Barnet Accountants | Tax, Payroll & Property

Chipping Barnet’s High Street mixes small professional firms and independent retailers — solicitors, surveyors, consultancies and family businesses. That mix needs an accountant who can handle a straightforward set of accounts efficiently and still have a sensible conversation about succession or a company restructure when one comes up.

We act for clients across the EN5 postcode and the wider borough, from sole traders filing a first self-assessment to established companies with payroll and VAT.

Year-end accounts & corporation tax
Prepared, filed at Companies House and HMRC, on time.
Self-assessment
For directors, sole traders, landlords and anyone HMRC has written to.
Bookkeeping, VAT & payroll
Kept current, so you are never reconstructing a year in January.
Planning, not just filing
A conversation before the year ends, when something can still be done.

Property accountant in Barnet: landlords and rental income

A lot of property in Barnet is let by individuals rather than companies — a family home kept when the owners moved, a flat above a shop on the High Street, a house in New Barnet or East Barnet let to commuters. As a property accountant in Barnet, most of what we do is making sure those landlords pay the right tax and no more.

The rules that shape a landlord’s bill

Mortgage interest is not deducted for individual landlords — it gets a 20% tax credit instead, which costs higher-rate landlords real money
The £1,000 property allowance can replace actual expenses where income is small
Rent a Room relief covers up to £7,500 a year from a lodger in your own home
The furnished holiday lettings regime was abolished from April 2025, so short lets are now taxed like any other rental
Buying another residential property brings the 5% stamp duty surcharge on top of normal rates

Selling, and the new quarterly reporting

When you sell a let property the gain is taxed at 18% or 24%, and a UK resident has to report it and pay within 60 days of completion. And from 6 April 2026, landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 come into Making Tax Digital, with quarterly updates to HMRC.

Payroll for Barnet employers

Barnet’s employers are mostly small: a practice with a handful of staff, a shop or restaurant on the High Street, a trades business with an office manager. Payroll for Barnet employers of that size has to be right every single payday, because HMRC sees each run as it happens.

Under Real Time Information, a Full Payment Submission goes to HMRC on or before each payday. Employer National Insurance is 15% on pay above £5,000 per employee, and most employers can reduce the bill with the £10,500 Employment Allowance — though not a company whose only employee is a sole director. On top of that come workplace pension duties for every eligible jobholder under auto-enrolment.

Our payroll service covers payslips, the RTI submissions, starters and leavers, statutory pay, pension contributions and year-end forms. You approve the figures; we do the rest.

Company accounts and corporation tax compliance in Barnet

Accounts compliance in Barnet is the same as anywhere in the UK, and the deadlines do not bend. For a private limited company:

Accounts filed at Companies House within 9 months of the year end
Corporation tax paid 9 months and 1 day after the year end — 19% up to £50,000 of profit, 25% above £250,000, marginal relief in between
The CT600 corporation tax return filed within 12 months
Identity verification for directors and people with significant control, required since 18 November 2025

Personal tax compliance runs alongside it. Directors taking dividends usually need a self-assessment return, due online by 31 January, with payments on account on 31 January and 31 July. We prepare the company and personal returns together, so the figures agree and nothing is taxed twice or missed.

What we handle for Barnet businesses

Limited company accounts, corporation tax and confirmation statements
Self-assessment for directors, partners and the self-employed
VAT registration, returns and Making Tax Digital
PAYE payroll, auto-enrolment and CIS
Bookkeeping on Xero or QuickBooks, set up and maintained
Company formation, and advice on whether to incorporate at all

The work we do most of around Barnet

Barnet spreads from High Barnet down through New Barnet and Whetstone, and the mix reflects it: building trades and subcontractors, professional services working from home or a small office, and a steady number of landlords with one or two properties.

Barnet the borough, or Barnet the town?

This trips people up constantly, and it changes the answer to practical questions, so it is worth being precise about.

The borough

The London Borough of Barnet is one of the largest in London by population, and it reaches a long way: Finchley, Hendon, Golders Green, Whetstone, Mill Hill, Edgware, Cricklewood and more. If somebody says "my accountant is in Barnet" they very often mean somewhere in this borough rather than the town itself.

The town

Chipping Barnet — usually just Barnet — sits at the northern edge, around the High Street and up to Hadley Green, with New Barnet and East Barnet below it and the EN postcodes rather than the N ones. It is a genuinely separate high street with its own mix of independents, professional practices and food businesses.

Why it matters

For rates, licensing and planning it does not — both are Barnet Council. Where it matters is everything else: rents, rateable values, footfall, staff travel and what a comparable business down the road is actually paying. Advice pitched at "Barnet" that treats Golders Green and Hadley Green as the same market is not advice, it is a postcode with a paragraph attached.

Business advice from chartered accountants in Barnet

We are ACCA and ACA qualified, and for our Barnet clients the chartered part matters most when the question goes beyond compliance: whether to incorporate, how to take profit out of a company, whether to buy premises personally or through the business, how to bring a family member in or hand a business on. These are decisions to model on your own figures before you commit.

Most small private companies do not need a statutory audit. What they need is accurate accounts filed on time and an accountant who will tell them what the numbers mean.

Getting to our office from Barnet

High Barnet station is the end of the High Barnet branch of the Northern line, and Finchley Central is on the same branch, four stops south: Totteridge & Whetstone, Woodside Park, West Finchley, then Finchley Central. The office is a short walk from the station.

By bus, the 326 runs from The Spires in Barnet via High Barnet, New Barnet and Totteridge & Whetstone to Finchley Central.

You do not have to come in: you can work with us entirely by phone, email and video call, and we respond within one working day.

Your council: London Borough of Barnet

Barnet — the town and the rest of the borough — is in the London Borough of Barnet, so Barnet Council sends your business rates bill and deals with premises licences, street trading and planning. None of that goes on a tax return, but rates are a fixed cost that can be relieved or appealed, and licence fees and timings belong in any plan for opening or changing premises.

Barnet Council covers Chipping Barnet and New Barnet as well as Finchley, Hendon, Golders Green, Whetstone, Mill Hill and Edgware. Some EN4 and EN5 addresses fall in Hertsmere instead, so check the council named on your bill.

Licence applications take the time they take: an alcohol licence or a change of use that runs long can push an opening date past the point where the lease is already costing money, so build that into the forecast.

Small business rate relief is set nationally and applied by the council: a business with one property whose rateable value is below £15,000 can get relief, and below £12,000 the relief is 100%. Taking on a second property can take it away from the first, so it is worth checking before you sign a lease rather than after the bill arrives.

Our services in Barnet

The services we provide in Barnet include inheritance tax planning and bookkeeping. Each has its own page with what is included and how we work.

Frequently asked

Do I need to come to your office?

Not unless you want to. You can send documents electronically and we can speak by phone or video. If you would rather sit down with someone, our Finchley office is on the same Northern line branch, at Finchley Central.

What does an accountant cost?

We agree the fee in writing before any work starts, based on what your business actually needs. Simple sole-trader returns cost considerably less than a trading limited company with payroll and VAT.

Can you take over from my current accountant?

Yes, and it is straightforward. We write to them for professional clearance and your records, and handle the transfer of your HMRC authorisations. You do not need to have an awkward conversation — though it is polite to tell them.

Do I pay business rates if I work from home in Barnet?

Usually not. A liability generally only arises where part of the property is used exclusively for business — a converted outbuilding or a room that is nothing else. A desk in a spare bedroom that is still a bedroom does not normally trigger it. Exclusive use can also affect private residence relief when you sell, which is the more expensive end of getting it wrong.

Can you work with me if I am in Barnet but never come in?

Yes. Records come by email or through the software, and we speak by phone or video. The Finchley office is there if a meeting would be quicker than a thread.

Are you in Barnet the town or Barnet the borough?

The borough — our office is in Finchley, N3, which is Barnet Council. If you are in Chipping Barnet or New Barnet we act for you exactly the same way; it is a short journey and most of the work does not require one at all.

Am I entitled to small business rate relief?

Possibly, and it is worth checking rather than assuming. It depends on the rateable value of your property and on how many properties you occupy, and it is not always applied without being asked for. Send us the bill and we will tell you whether it looks right — it is a short conversation that occasionally saves a four-figure sum.

Do you work with businesses across the whole borough?

Yes. Barnet is large and its high streets are very different from one another, so we would rather talk about your street than the borough — but Finchley, Hendon, Golders Green, Whetstone, Mill Hill, Edgware and Chipping Barnet are all routine for us.

Should I move my Barnet rental property into a limited company?

Sometimes, but rarely just for the tax rate. A company can deduct mortgage interest in full, which helps higher-rate landlords, but moving an existing property into it is usually treated as a sale — which can mean capital gains tax and stamp duty, including the 5% surcharge. We model both routes on your figures before you decide.

Do I need to run payroll if I am the only director?

Often it is worth it. A modest salary through payroll can protect your National Insurance record while keeping tax low, with the rest taken as dividends. Note that a company whose only employee is a sole director cannot claim the Employment Allowance, so the salary level needs setting with employer National Insurance in mind.

What happens if my company files its accounts late?

Companies House charges an automatic penalty that rises the later the accounts are, and HMRC charges separately for a late CT600. Persistently failing to file can lead Companies House to strike the company off. If a deadline is close and the records are not ready, talk to us early — it is usually recoverable if caught in time.

Talk to an accountant near Barnet

A short first conversation, no charge and no obligation — we will tell you what we would do and what it would cost.

Get in touch

We respond within one working day.