Sidekick - Limited Company and Self-Employed Accountants

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Sidekick are one of the fastest growing accounting services for Self-Employed professionals and Contractors.

Sidekick was created by a team who have over 25 years’ experience providing services to small business owners. Having recognised the way others do things, and feeling that this is outdated, we felt we could offer more. The world is changing, people are busier than ever and the days of putting receipts in an envelope and having a stressful year end are long gone. Life doesn’t have to be stressful with Sidekick, we are here to make running a small business or getting paid as simple and efficient as possible.

19/10/2026

If you are new here, welcome. Here is who we are and what we do.

We are Sidekick, a team of accountants, tax specialists and payroll experts who work with self-employed people, limited company directors, contractors and landlords across the UK.

We started Sidekick because we believed there was a better way to do accountancy. Less jargon. More availability. Proper advice throughout the year, not just in January when it is already too late to change anything.

Here is what that looks like in practice.

One dedicated client manager who knows your business.

Real-time bookkeeping through FreeAgent so you always know where you stand.

Tax returns, MTD submissions, payroll, company accounts and Companies House filings all handled under one fixed monthly fee.

We work with people at every stage, from someone who has just gone self-employed for the first time, to established limited company directors who have been running their business for years and want to make sure their finances are working as hard as they are.

If that sounds like what you have been looking for, send us a DM or book a call and we can chat through your circumstances.

14/10/2026

HMRC has started signing people up to Making Tax Digital without them asking.

From September 2026, HMRC began identifying sole traders and landlords who are required to use MTD for Income Tax for 2026/27 but have not yet registered, and enrolling them into the system directly.

More than 436,000 people have already submitted their first quarterly update. If you have not and you are in scope, HMRC may already be aware.

If you receive a letter from HMRC about MTD, it is not something to set aside and deal with later. It confirms you are enrolled and sets out what you need to do next. You will need HMRC recognised software in place. Your records need to be digital and up to date. Your second quarterly deadline is 7 November 2026.

If you are self-employed or a landlord and your combined gross income from those sources is above £50,000, this applies to you now.

If you are not sure whether you are enrolled, or you have received a letter and are not sure what to do with it, get in touch today.

12/10/2026

The state pension is £241.30 per week right now.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced on 29 September 2026 that the triple lock will become a double lock from April 2030. What that means for future state pension increases is not yet clear.

What is clear is that relying solely on the state pension for retirement is a risk most people cannot afford to take.

The good news is that if you run a limited company, you have one of the most tax efficient ways to invest for your future already available to you.

Your company can pay directly into a pension on your behalf. Those contributions are a deductible business expense. They reduce your company's profit before corporation tax is calculated. A £20,000 company pension contribution costs the company £16,200 after 19% corporation tax relief on profits up to £50,000. The money goes into your pension rather than to HMRC.

You reduce your tax bill. You build your own private pension. You are not waiting to see what the government does next.

This is not financial advice and setting up a pension investment is something we would refer you to our partner IFA to arrange. What we can tell you is that as your accountant, we can structure your company contributions correctly so the tax treatment works in your favour.

If you want to explore this, get in touch and we will point you in the right direction.

09/10/2026

Always a pleasure to catch up with Rich from Evans Estates.

We have been supporting Rich and the Evans Estates team for four years now and we are so grateful for his kind words.

"Joe, Becci and the team have helped with absolutely everything. Their advice and support over the last four years has been brilliant and I genuinely couldn't recommend them highly enough."

If you are looking for an accountant who genuinely cares about your business and is with you every step of the way, send us a DM or book a call and we can chat through your circumstances.

07/10/2026

Your business made £80,000 this year. Your bank account says £12,000.

Where did it go?

This is one of the most common and most stressful moments in small business. The numbers look good on paper. The reality feels completely different.

Profit and cash flow are not the same thing. Understanding the difference is everything.

Profit is what is left after you subtract your costs from your income. It is a figure on a report.

Cash flow is the actual money moving in and out of your account in real time.

Here is how the gap happens.

You invoice a client £20,000 in March. They pay in June. The profit is recorded in March. The cash arrives three months later. In between, you still have rent, payroll, VAT and tax to cover.

You buy £15,000 of stock. It sits in the warehouse for two months before it sells. The cash is gone. The profit has not arrived yet.

Your tax bill for last year comes due. The money was counted as profit twelve months ago. It has been spent since.

A profitable business can fail because of cash flow. It happens constantly.

This is why real-time bookkeeping matters. Not just knowing what you earned. Knowing what you actually have, when it is coming in, and when it needs to go out.

That is what we set up for every Sidekick client from day one.

Get in touch.

05/10/2026

Do you have a financial plan? Most business owners do not.

Here is what happens without one.

January arrives. The tax bill is bigger than expected.
A piece of equipment breaks. The cash is not there.
A client does not pay. The next quarter's VAT is due.
A quiet month hits. There is nothing set aside to cover it.

None of these are unusual. All of them are manageable with the right plan in place.

A financial plan for a small business is not complicated. It is knowing your numbers well enough to see things coming.

What is your tax bill likely to be this year? Are you setting enough aside for it? When is your corporation tax due? When is your VAT return. What does your cash flow look like for the next three months?

Profit does not pay bills. Cash does.

You can have a profitable year on paper and still run out of money if the timing is wrong. Knowing the difference between what your business earns and what it actually has available at any given point is one of the most important things a business owner can understand.

That is exactly what we help clients get on top of.

Get in touch, and we will help you build a picture of where you actually stand.

02/10/2026

3 mistakes costing Lisa thousands as a landlord.

MTD kicked in.

Combined property and self-employment income over £50,000.
First quarterly deadline was 7 August.
She missed it.
HMRC soft landing means no penalty points in 2026/27.
But unfiled quarterlies block the year-end filing.
Deadline to catch up is 7 November 2026.

Section 24 mortgage interest.

She is a higher rate taxpayer.
She can only claim a 20% basic rate tax credit on her mortgage interest costs.
Not a full deduction against rental profit.
On £12,000 of annual mortgage interest, a higher rate taxpayer loses £2,400 in relief compared to what they could claim before Section 24.
This is a cost that cannot be planned away if income is self-employed; it is what it is, but it has to be factored into the numbers properly.

Expenses she was not claiming.

Travel to her properties at 55p per mile.
Landlord insurance.
Letting agent fees.
Replacement of like-for-like fixtures.
All going through properly now.

Result: tax position significantly improved in year one.

Same properties. Same income.

Just managed properly.

Get in touch, and we will look at your rental position.

30/09/2026

4 things sole traders do that cost them money.

Every single one is fixable.

Using the wrong mileage rate.

The rate went up to 55p per mile in April 2026.
First increase in 15 years.
Still claiming 45p?
On 10,000 business miles, that is £1,000 left with HMRC.
Update it now.

Not setting aside tax as they go.

Self assessment bill arrives in January.
Payment on account on top.
Money has already been spent.
Set aside around 20% of every payment as it lands.
Separate account. Do not touch it.

Missing pre-trading expenses.

Costs incurred up to 7 years before trading began.
Equipment, website, professional advice.
All potentially claimable on your first return.
Most people never know this.

Forgetting to register on time.

5 October 2026 is the registration deadline for new sole traders in 2025/26.
Miss it and the failure to notify penalty lands.
Then the late filing penalty follows in January.
Two penalties for one oversight.

All of this is avoidable.

Get in touch before it costs you.

28/09/2026

4 ways Mark kept more than £8000 this year as a limited company owner.

Salary review.

Still paying himself £9,100 from two years ago.
Switched to £12,570.
Full personal allowance now used.
Extra £3,470 taken tax-free.
Saving: £694.

His wife joined the business.

She had no other income and started helping with his admin.
He put her on the payroll at £12,570.
The salary is a legitimate business expense.
Corporation tax saved on her salary: minimum £2,388 at 19%.
She pays no income tax. She pays no National Insurance.
The company gets the deduction.

Spouse shareholding.

He then added her as a shareholder.
Instead of Mark taking all dividends and tipping into the 35.75% higher rate band, they split the dividends between them.
Her dividends land in the basic rate band at 10.75%.
His stay in the basic rate band at 10.75%.
Without her shareholding, a significant portion would have been taxed at 35.75%.
The saving on dividend tax alone was substantial.

Company pension.

£20,000 paid directly from the company into his pension.
Comes off profit before corporation tax.
Corporation tax saved: £3,800.
The money is still his. Just in a pension instead of HMRC’s pocket.

Same business. Same year. Just structured properly.

Get in touch and we will do this for you.

25/09/2026

Self-employed people, here are the things you can claim that most people have no idea about

Your prescription glasses: if you need them specifically for screen work and your optician confirms it, the cost is claimable.

Your professional subscriptions. Industry membership fees, trade body registrations, professional body subscriptions relevant to your work. All claimable.

Your training. Courses, workshops and qualifications directly relevant to your current trade. Not future careers, not unrelated interests. What you do right now.

The business proportion of your broadband. If you work from home and your broadband is used for both personal and business purposes, the business element is claimable.

Your bank charges. Business bank account fees and any charges directly related to your business account. Claimable.

Pre-trading expenses. Costs incurred up to seven years before you officially started trading that would have been allowable had the business been running. Equipment bought in preparation, professional advice, website setup costs.

Every one of these reduces your taxable profit. Less profit means less tax. Most people are not claiming all of it.

Get in touch and we will make sure you are.

Address

71-75 Shelton Street
London
WC2H9JQ

Telephone

+448081643000

Website

http://www.yoursidekick.co.uk/

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