Accountant in Bow E3 | Your Tax Help Accountants

Accountant in Bow

Tax & Accounting for Bow Businesses

Bow E3 has been transformed by the regeneration that followed the 2012 Olympics. The area sits directly west of the Olympic Park and the Stratford redevelopment, with Fish Island (technically on the Bow side of the Hertford Union Canal) hosting one of London's most concentrated clusters of artist studios, small production companies, breweries and creative SMEs in converted industrial buildings. Roman Road Market continues a centuries-old trading tradition with food, clothing and household goods. And the residential community across Bow includes a substantial population of self-employed drivers, trades and small business owners who service the wider east London and City patches.

That gives Bow a particular accounting profile. CIS subcontractors working the Olympic Park infrastructure projects, the Stratford developments and the ongoing east London regeneration need monthly CIS returns (if they're also engaging their own subcontractors) and annual refund claims. Roman Road market traders need weekend/market-day trading bookkeeping. Fish Island creatives have a mix of self-employed practice income, Ltd company income from larger projects, occasional grant income and sometimes Arts Council funding. And the self-employed drivers and trades need standard self-employment registration with proper expense capture. Your Tax Help Accountants, HMRC-registered, serves Bow clients online with fixed monthly fees.

💡 As an HMRC-registered agent we deal directly with HMRC on your behalf, so you never have to spend hours on hold or navigate their website yourself.

What We Do

Full-Range Tax & Accounting for Bow

📋

Self-Assessment Tax Returns

Full SA100 for self-employed, landlords and individuals. Filed direct to HMRC, same day if urgent.

🏗️

CIS Compliance

Complete CIS for contractors and subcontractors. Monthly returns, deduction statements, refund claims.

📊

Limited Company Accounts

Year-end statutory accounts, Corporation Tax returns, and director self-assessment. All filed on time.

🏠

Landlord Tax Advice

Rental income reporting, capital gains planning, Making Tax Digital, and allowable expense guidance.

💷

VAT Returns

MTD-compliant VAT submissions and ongoing bookkeeping to keep records clean and cash flow transparent.

👥

Payroll Services

Monthly payroll processing, RTI submissions to HMRC, and auto-enrolment pension administration.

Client Story

How we got a Bow CIS contractor £6,800 back across two tax years

Client K is a self-employed bricklayer who worked across multiple Olympic Park and Stratford-area construction sites over the past two tax years. His main contractors had been deducting 20% CIS from his weekly payments throughout, and he'd never claimed a refund because he didn't know what records he needed to keep. He'd filed his self-assessments through a high-street tax shop who'd submitted basic returns without claiming most of his legitimate expenses.

We worked backwards from his bank statements, the limited receipts he'd kept and the worksite addresses to reconstruct his expenses for the two open tax years. Vehicle costs were the biggest item (he drove his van to seven different sites across east London during the period, using the 45p HMRC mileage rate for the first 10,000 miles each year, then 25p thereafter). Tools (some single-purchase items above the £1,000 capital allowance threshold, some smaller revenue expense). PPE, safety boots, hi-vis kit. Phone proportion used for work. Sundry materials, accountancy and a small home office allowance. We re-filed both years' self-assessments correctly.

Total outcome: refund of £6,800 across the two years from properly-claimed expenses against the CIS-deducted income, plus a clean future-tax process where Client K now sends us photos of receipts as he buys them.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

I'm a CIS subcontractor working Olympic Park sites. What records do I need to keep?

Three categories. Income side: payment statements from each contractor showing gross payment, CIS deduction and net paid. Expense side: every receipt, ideally with the date, supplier, what was bought and the amount. Vehicle side: a log of business mileage (start point, end point, miles) if you're using the simplified mileage method, or all vehicle costs (fuel, insurance, service, MOT, finance) if you're using actual costs. We provide a phone app that captures receipts as photos and a simple mileage logger.

I run a Fish Island brewery as a Ltd company. VAT scheme and alcohol duty?

Beer brewed at your premises is subject to alcohol duty (rates vary by alcohol content and production volume, with Small Producer Relief reducing the rate for breweries under 4,500 hectolitres annually). VAT applies on top of duty. Standard VAT is usually the right choice for breweries because you have significant input VAT to recover (raw materials, equipment, utilities, rent). We'll set up the alcohol duty returns alongside the VAT returns.

I trade at Roman Road Market three days a week. Cash takings - what does HMRC need?

HMRC requires you to keep daily takings records for cash businesses. Each market day you should record gross takings (cash plus any card), then any banking of cash to the business account. Stall fees, stock costs, transport and other direct costs go against the takings. The key thing HMRC will check is that bank deposits broadly match recorded takings less expenses paid in cash. We'll set up a simple daily takings book that handles this cleanly.

I'm a Fish Island artist with mixed self-employed income and occasional grant income. How does that work?

Self-employed art income (sales, commissions, teaching) goes in self-employment pages of your self-assessment. Arts Council and similar grants for practice support or production of work you retain copyright in are usually trading income too. Sales of original art works are generally trading income for working artists (not investment-asset CGT). Capital grants for specific equipment may be netted against the equipment cost rather than being income. We'll review your specific grant terms and treat each correctly.

My Bow Ltd company hires subcontractors for individual construction projects. Am I a CIS contractor?

If you're a contractor making payments to subcontractors for construction operations, yes, you need to register as a CIS contractor (separate from being a CIS subcontractor on other contracts). You verify each subcontractor with HMRC before first payment, deduct CIS at the correct rate from their labour payments, file monthly CIS returns by the 19th of the following month, and issue payment and deduction statements. We handle the monthly CIS compliance.

I'm an Uber driver based in Bow doing London trips. What can I claim?

Two methods for vehicle costs and we'll pick the better one annually. HMRC simplified mileage: 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles, 25p thereafter, with no separate claim for fuel, insurance or maintenance. Actual cost method: claim a business-use proportion of fuel, insurance, repairs, MOT, service, finance interest, with capital allowances on the vehicle. On top of vehicle costs we claim the phone proportion, ULEZ daily charge for the business proportion, congestion charge where applicable, app commission, cleaning.

I've been a Bow CIS subcontractor for years but never claimed a refund. Can I go back?

You can submit refund claims for tax years still within the four-year window. Earlier years are usually out of time. For each year still open, we'll reconstruct the expenses from bank statements, vehicle records and any receipts you have, and submit either an amended self-assessment or (if no return was filed at all) a back-year return claiming the correct expenses. Refunds typically arrive 6-12 weeks after submission.

How do I get started?

Book a free 15-minute call via Calendly or ring 07478 645331. We work with Bow clients fully online, we're experienced with CIS construction work across east London, and we handle back-year refund claims for subbies who haven't been claiming what they're entitled to.

Accountant in Bow for Small Businesses