How to hire
Match the adviser to the job first. An accountant owns your books, returns and filings; a tax adviser plans how much tax you pay across income, property, dividends and capital gains; a financial planner owns pensions, investments and inheritance-tax planning, and must appear on the FCA register to give regulated advice [5]. This table mixes all three, so read each card for what the firm actually does. Anyone in the UK can call themselves a tax adviser with no qualifications at all, which is why the checks below matter [1].
Check credentials before you book. Search the CIOT directory for Chartered Tax Advisers and the ATT directory for Taxation Technicians, then confirm the name that comes back is the person you are hiring [2] [3]. For an accountant, search the ICAEW directory of firms [4]. Members of these bodies must keep their skills current, and members in practice must hold professional indemnity insurance, which protects you if their work is wrong [1]. A logo on a website proves nothing on its own. If the name does not appear, ask why before you go further.
Ask how the firm handles Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over fifty thousand pounds should have started quarterly digital reporting from April 2026, and the threshold drops to thirty thousand pounds from April 2027 [8]. Your adviser should name the compatible software you will use and explain what you must record and when. Bring bank statements, invoices, receipts, rental accounts and last year's return to the first meeting so the quote reflects the real workload.
Get two or three written quotes on the same summary of your work and compare like with like. Each quote must show the scope, which returns and filings are included, the fee basis, whether VAT is added, and any extras such as software licences or Companies House fees [12]. A fixed monthly fee suits ongoing help, while hourly billing suits a single question, at roughly seventy-five to two hundred pounds an hour [10]. Treat an outlier far above or below the rest as a question rather than a bargain, and ask what is included.
Know the dates your adviser is working to. You must tell HMRC by the fifth of October if you need to file for the previous year, paper returns are due by the end of October, and online returns plus payment by the end of January, with a second payment on account at the end of July [6]. Filing late brings an immediate hundred-pound penalty plus daily charges [7]. Expect ID and income-detail checks at the outset, since advisers must hold anti-money laundering supervision, so a firm that asks for nothing is cutting corners [1].
Finish with paperwork you can file. You should hold an engagement letter setting out the scope and fees, a copy of every filed return with its submission receipt, the tax calculation, and your payment references and deadlines [6]. If the firm is a limited company, its record should be there to check at Companies House [11]. Keep quotes, invoices and filings together where you can find them at sale, remortgage or enquiry. If the work goes wrong, Citizens Advice sets out your consumer options [12].
A typical job runs the same course. You send a short summary of your income, records and deadlines, then talk it through by phone, online or across a desk. The firm quotes on that summary, you agree the fee basis, and you sign an engagement letter and HMRC agent authorisation, through the paper 64-8 form or an online service depending on the tax, so the firm can speak to HMRC for you [13]. The firm then prepares the figures, you check every one before anything is filed, since you stay legally responsible for your own tax even when an agent files for you [13], and sign-off is the filed returns and receipts coming back to you.
At the two paperwork moments, detail matters. The written quote should name each return and filing, give the fee for each or the monthly figure, say whether VAT is added, list any software or Companies House charges passed through, and set out what changes the price if the books are worse than described. The closing file should hold the engagement letter, filed returns with submission receipts, tax calculations and payment references with their deadlines, kept where you can find them at sale, remortgage or enquiry [6].
Telford and Wrekin Council touches the edges of the job. If you move premises, its business-rates pages take reports of occupying or vacating, relief applications and instalment-plan changes through online forms, so agree with your adviser who handles each of those [15]. For meetings, the ranked firms sit everywhere from a Greatfield shop to business-park offices at Stafford Park, Hadley Park and Hall Park Way, with Shifnal and Admaston in the mix, and most also take first contact by phone or online. If you drive in, the council's car-park map shows which borough car parks are free and where pay-and-go by phone or app applies, including the Ironbridge sites [16].
Pricing
As of summer 2026, rough Telford ranges run like this: a standalone self assessment return £150–£400 plus VAT; simple employed returns £150–£250; sole traders £200–£350; directors £250–£400; partnerships £300–£600 or more [9]. These are national guide figures from current fee surveys, and Telford usually sits below London and South East prices [9].
Monthly packages suit ongoing help. Sole-trader packages run £30–£80 a month, basic limited-company compliance starts near £80 a month, and a full package with payroll, VAT and management figures reaches £200–£500 [10]. One-off questions billed by the hour run £75–£200 [10]. Firms in this round lean toward fixed or monthly fees but publish almost no example rates, so treat any single price with no breakdown as a question, not an answer.
Three things move the price most: how complex your income is, how organised your records are, and how close to the January deadline you file, with rush fees adding £50–£150 [9]. Each extra income stream can add £75–£200, and London practices charge a fifth to nearly a third more than firms elsewhere [9]. Tidy cloud-software records kept through the year pull the fee back down [9].
Ask whether VAT is added on top, since published ranges exclude it [9] [10]. Get the scope in writing before work starts: exactly which returns, accounts and filings are included, what changes the price if the books are worse than expected, and when fees are reviewed. Agree payment stages and keep every quote, invoice and filing receipt together [12].
Crossing the VAT threshold changes the bill. Once taxable turnover passes ninety thousand pounds you must register for VAT [14], and quarterly VAT returns join the workload your adviser prices. Firms usually fold VAT into the monthly package or bill it per return, so ask which applies before you agree. Rental portfolios and CIS work price the same way, per return or per scheme, with each extra stream adding to the fee [9].
Two extras catch buyers out. The first is software: quarterly digital updates need compatible software [8], and some firms pass the licence cost through on top of the fee. The second is timing: fees agreed in quiet months can be reviewed after year-end, and rush work near the January deadline adds to the bill [9]. Get the software cost and the review date named in the quote before work starts.
Red flags
Calls itself a tax adviser but names no professional body membership you can check in a directory [2] [3].
Quotes a self assessment or monthly package without asking what income streams and records you have.
Gives one fixed price for company work with no breakdown of labour, filings and VAT [10].
Asks for full payment in cash before any work starts, with no written terms.
Never asks for ID or details of your income at the outset [1].
Promises a refund size or a tax saving before seeing your books.
Will not put the scope, the fee and the filing deadlines in writing before starting.
Describes business-rates relief or council paperwork as handled, but names no relief and no evidence the council asks for [15].
Works from a verbal figure agreed on the phone, with no engagement letter and no written fee.