How Much Does an Accountant Cost for a Domiciliary Care Group in the UK 2026/27?

The short answer: what a care group accountant actually costs

A multi-branch domiciliary care group in the UK usually pays between £699 and £1,500 a month for a specialist accountant in 2026/27, and the fee tracks the number of registrations and companies you carry rather than the name over any single door. A small group of two or three branches tends to start from £699 a month. A mid-size group of four to six branches sits from around £999. A larger group of seven or more branches, or one running several separate limited companies, runs towards £1,500 and up.

A domiciliary care group means more than one branch delivering personal care in people's homes, usually with a separate Care Quality Commission registration for each location, sometimes held inside one company and sometimes spread across several. So this is a step up from a single home care agency, and the accounting steps up with it. Those monthly figures cover consolidated bookkeeping, group-wide payroll, management accounts you can read branch by branch, the VAT position and year-end accounts and corporation tax across the group. One-off pieces of work sit outside them, such as a Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration cashflow forecast from £999 when you open a new branch.

Why the range is wide comes down to what a care group really is. You are running several care operations under one roof, a payroll heavy on carers spread across sites, and a billing function that has to prove delivered hours to councils, Integrated Care Boards and private clients at every branch. The more registrations you hold and the more separate companies sit in the structure, the higher the fee, because there is more to consolidate, more to keep compliant and more that goes wrong when it is done by someone who has never accounted for a group before. For the wider picture of how we support care providers, see our healthcare and care accountants page, and for exact figures you can see our full price list.

Why a care group costs more to account for than a single agency

A care group costs more to account for because the structure is multiplied and the numbers have to be pulled back together, and both raise the amount of work behind every figure. A single agency has one CQC registration, one payroll and one set of accounts. A group runs several registrations, carers spread across branches on different rotas, and a set of books at each site that a specialist then has to consolidate into one true picture. Each branch adds reconciliation, compliance and risk. The same welfare VAT and travel-time questions shape the fee for a single provider too, which we cover in our guide on how much an accountant costs for a domiciliary care provider.

Start with the registrations, because that is where a group is genuinely different. Each location from which you deliver personal care normally needs its own registration with CQC, and the regulator charges a community social care fee per location, made up of a base amount plus an amount for every service user. So a five-branch group holds five registrations, five fee bills and five sets of financial evidence CQC can ask to see. Under CQC Regulation 13 on financial viability, each of those registrations carries an expectation that the service can be run sustainably, which means clean, current figures per branch, not one blurred total.

Then there is the corporation tax, which is where most generic accountants quietly overcharge a group in tax. If your branches sit in several separate limited companies, HMRC treats them as associated and divides the £50,000 small-profits limit and the £250,000 upper limit by the number of companies. So three associated care companies each pay the 19 percent small-profits rate only up to £16,667 of profit, not £50,000, and tip into the 25 percent rate with marginal relief far sooner, as the Association of Taxation Technicians explains. Our annual accounts and corporation tax service is built to model exactly this before you incorporate the next branch, because the structure you choose sets your tax bill for years.

The third reason is the payroll and the billing sitting behind it. Carers are spread across branches, each on the National Living Wage floor at least, each accruing travel time between calls, and each branch billing councils, ICBs and private clients in arrears. Miss a short payment at one branch and it can hide inside a healthy group total for months. All of this is why the monthly figure sits above a single agency's, and why the bars below climb with the number of branches you run.

What a care group accountant actually does each month

A care group accountant runs one payroll across every branch, consolidates each branch's books into group management accounts you can read site by site, keeps the VAT position correct across exempt care and any taxable staff supply, and files the PAYE and the accounts for each company on time. That is the monthly cycle, and each part carries a group-specific trap that the fee is really paying to avoid.

Payroll comes first because it is the biggest number in the business and the easiest to get inconsistent across sites. Every carer aged 21 and over must clear the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour from 6 April 2026 before any premium, and travel time between calls counts towards that check, so a branch that pays per visit without counting travel can quietly breach the minimum wage while its neighbour does not. Employer National Insurance now runs at 15 percent on pay above the £5,000 secondary threshold. Running one payroll across the group means that check happens once, correctly, rather than five branches each doing it their own way and only one of them getting it right.

Consolidation comes second, and it matters more for a group than almost anything else. You want a profit and loss you can read per branch, then a clean group total on top, because a single loss-making branch funded below cost can quietly drain the group for a year if it hides inside a healthy consolidated figure. We reconcile what each council or ICB actually paid against the hours each branch's rota says were delivered, so a short payment or a paused package shows up as a query in the month it happens, at the branch it happened, not at year end when the money is gone.

Then there is the compliance layer, multiplied by the number of companies. Each company in the group needs its PAYE filed in real time, its VAT handled correctly even when most income is exempt, and its year-end accounts and corporation tax filed on time with the associated-companies thresholds applied. For a group that also runs an introductory or staff-supply arm, part of the income can be standard-rated at 20 percent while the care itself is exempt, so that company carries a genuine VAT calculation rather than a nil return. Get the exempt and taxable split wrong across the group and HMRC will eventually correct it, with interest.

The three things that move a care group's fee up or down

Three things decide where your fee lands: how many branches and CQC registrations you hold, whether the group is one company or several, and how centralised your payroll and billing are. Everything else is detail. Understand these three and you can predict your own quote before you ever pick up the phone.

1. Number of branches and registrations

Branch count is the obvious driver. Each new branch is another CQC registration, another rota, another set of council and ICB billing to reconcile, and another financial-viability expectation to evidence. More branches mean more consolidation and more compliance, so the fee rises broadly in step with the bars above. This is the line generic firms underprice, because they see one client and quote for one set of accounts rather than the five they will actually have to pull together.

2. One company or several

Structure quietly does more to your fee, and your tax, than headcount. A group inside one company with internal branch reporting keeps a single set of accounts and one corporation tax threshold. A group spread across several limited companies gives you liability protection between branches, but it splits the £50,000 and £250,000 tax limits across all the associated companies and multiplies your filing. Neither is automatically right, and choosing badly is expensive in tax, so the modelling behind that decision is part of what the fee buys.

3. How centralised your payroll and billing are

Centralisation is the third lever, and the one you can most control. A group that runs one payroll and one billing process across every branch is far cheaper to account for than one where each branch keeps its own spreadsheet, its own pay dates and its own idea of how travel time is counted. Pulling five inconsistent branches into one clean group takes real work, and the fee reflects it, which is why tidying this up is usually the first thing that pays for itself. The waterfall below shows how a mid-size group's £999 monthly fee builds up across these layers.

Is a specialist worth it, or will a high-street accountant do?

For a domiciliary care group a specialist is usually worth it, because the money is not in the bookkeeping, it is in consolidating the group cleanly, splitting the corporation tax thresholds across your associated companies, and getting the welfare VAT and group payroll right, and a general accountant rarely sees any of it. A high-street firm can file each company's accounts. What it tends not to do is spot that your three companies are sharing one £50,000 tax threshold, that one branch is paying per visit in a way that fails a minimum wage check, or that your introductory arm has quietly created a VAT problem the care side never had.

Take the associated companies rules. If your branches sit in several limited companies, the £50,000 and £250,000 corporation tax limits are divided between them, so profit tips into the 25 percent rate far sooner than an owner expects. A generalist who files each company in isolation can miss the interaction entirely and leave the structure costing more tax than it needs to. Modelling whether to keep one company or several, before you incorporate the next branch, is a planning decision worth far more than the monthly fee.

Then take the welfare exemption across the group. Personal care by a CQC-registered provider is a welfare service and is exempt from VAT, so each caring branch charges no VAT and it does not count towards the £90,000 threshold. The reference is HMRC VAT Notice 701/2 on welfare services and goods. Where the group also supplies staff or runs an introductory arm, that company can be standard-rated, so only that arm counts towards registration. Our post on whether domiciliary care is VAT exempt walks through the managed-provider versus introductory-agency line in full. Here is how the three common approaches actually compare for a care group.

What this means for you: what to check before you appoint anyone

If you are choosing an accountant for a domiciliary care group, a handful of checks will tell you quickly whether they can actually do the job. Most of them are questions you can ask on a first call.

1. Ask how they would structure the group. A specialist will immediately talk about the associated companies rules, liability between branches and your funding contracts. A generalist will ask what your combined turnover is. That first answer tells you almost everything.
2. Ask how they consolidate. The right answer references reporting each branch separately and then producing a clean group total, not merging everything into one blended figure where a loss-making branch can hide for a year.
3. Ask how they would run payroll across the branches. The right answer references one consistent National Living Wage and travel-time check across every site, not each branch left to its own spreadsheet and pay dates.
4. Ask about the corporation tax thresholds. If you run several companies, the £50,000 and £250,000 limits are split between them. A specialist raises this unprompted. A generalist who does not is likely overpaying your tax.
5. Check the welfare VAT and any introductory arm. Your caring branches should be exempt under Notice 701/2, and only a staff-supply or introductory company should be counting towards the £90,000 threshold. Make sure they can keep the two apart company by company.
6. Get the quote in writing and fixed. A group runs on funded, reviewed rates, so a surprise hourly invoice at year end is the last thing you need. You can check your own position in a free call with LOYALS before you commit to anyone.

None of this is about paying the most. It is about paying someone who has accounted for a care group before, because in this sector the cheap accountant who gets the structure, the group payroll or the VAT split wrong is the expensive one.