News
One team, three services: taking the compliance burden off your plate
14 May 2026
Managing the financial and legal obligations of running a business has become increasingly complex. Between HMRC’s digital tax requirements, payroll legislation, and Companies House filings, the admin falling on sole traders, landlords, and small limited companies has grown significantly, and the consequences of getting it wrong, or simply missing a deadline, are real.
Our payroll team has been supporting clients with their payroll needs for years. Led by Tracey Hayward, we’ve now widened that service to bring the Making Tax Digital (MTD) team and company secretarial support under the same roof, giving clients one place to turn for all three.
How we help
Put simply, we can handle it for you.
Rather than advising you on what needs to be done and leaving you to do it, our team can take ownership of each area on your behalf. You stay in control. Nothing is submitted or filed without your review and approval, but the day-to-day management, the deadlines, and the paperwork can sit with us.
For MTD, we can set you up on Xero, collect your records each month, and prepare your quarterly updates for you to review and approve before we submit them to HMRC. At year-end, we can handle your final declaration too. You’ll always know what’s been submitted and when.
For payroll, we can manage your submissions, keep your figures accurate as rates and thresholds change, handle your auto-enrolment obligations, and make sure your Real Time Information reporting to HMRC is done correctly on or before each pay date.
For company secretarial, we can maintain your statutory records, file your annual confirmation statement with Companies House, and make sure any changes to your business (directors, shareholders, registered details) are recorded and reported correctly.
What we hear most from clients isn’t about the time it saves, though that matters. It’s the reassurance of knowing these things are being looked after by people who do it every day, and that you’re not going to find out something’s gone wrong because a letter arrives from HMRC or Companies House.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
MTD for Income Tax is now live. From April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 are required to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC, adding quarterly updates and a final declaration to the annual reporting process.
That’s four quarterly updates a year, plus a final declaration, each one requiring accurate and up-to-date records. Penalties for late or missing submissions apply from the outset.
It’s also worth knowing that this is only the first phase. The income threshold drops to £30,000 in April 2027 and to £20,000 in April 2028. If your income sits below £50,000 today, it’s still worth understanding where you’ll land when the later phases apply, and whether your current record-keeping would hold up to quarterly scrutiny.
Payroll
Payroll has always carried risk, but the obligations on employers continue to grow.
National Living Wage rates rise annually, and auto-enrolment obligations (making sure eligible employees are enrolled and contributions are calculated correctly) remain a common area where small businesses fall short without realising it.
HMRC requires payroll data to be reported in real time, with FPS submissions due on or before payday. For businesses managing payroll manually or with limited resource, errors are easy to miss and can accumulate quickly.
There is also a significant change on the horizon for employers who provide Benefits in Kind. From April 2027, benefits such as company cars and private medical insurance will need to be reported through payroll software in real time, replacing the annual P11D process that most employers are currently used to. HMRC’s guidance is still being finalised, but the change is confirmed and mandatory for all employers who provide taxable benefits. It is not too early to understand how it will affect you.
Getting payroll wrong doesn’t just create penalties. It affects your employees, and it affects trust.
Company Secretarial
Limited companies carry legal obligations to Companies House that exist entirely separately from their tax affairs, and they’re among the easiest to overlook when a business is busy.
Every company must file a confirmation statement at least once a year, confirming its registered details are current. Statutory registers, recording directors, shareholders, and persons of significant control, need to be maintained accurately. Any changes to the business structure need to be filed correctly and on time.
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act has introduced new identity verification requirements for directors and persons of significant control, phased in by Companies House from November 2025. This is a compliance requirement tied to company roles and filings, and for directors managing multiple responsibilities, it is genuinely easy to let slip. Until it isn’t.
You don’t have to manage this alone
None of the above is impossible. MTD, payroll, and company secretarial obligations are all entirely manageable with the right support in place and getting on top of them means you can get back to focusing on the parts of your business that need you.
That’s what our team is here for.
Talk to our team
If you’d like to find out more about how we can support you across any of these areas, we’re happy to have that conversation. You can get in touch at hello@wrpartners.co.uk or on 08000 664 664.
