How Much Does an Accountant Cost for a Takeaway in the UK 2026/27?

The short answer: what a takeaway pays for an accountant in 2026/27

A takeaway pays an accountant somewhere between about £60 and £500 a month, and where you sit on that line depends almost entirely on how the business is set up and whether you are registered for VAT. Price scales with paperwork, not with portions. A one-person takeaway that files a single tax return is cheap to look after. A VAT-registered shop with staff, three delivery apps and quarterly returns is a bigger job, and the fee reflects that.

Here is the honest breakdown. A self-employed takeaway owner needing a Self Assessment tax return prepared costs from £695 a year, which spread across twelve months is close to £60. Add monthly bookkeeping that reconciles your card, cash and delivery-app takings and you are looking at from £125 a month. Move into a limited company and the annual accounts plus Corporation Tax return start at £1,200 a year, with VAT returns from £195 a quarter on top once you are registered. These are the published starting fees a firm like ours actually charges, not guesses.

Most takeaway owners we speak to do not want a price list, they want the one number that applies to them. That number comes from a five-minute conversation about your setup. The figures below give you a fair sense of the range first. For the wider picture of how the sector is taxed, our hospitality accountants page sets out where takeaways, cafes and restaurants fit, and the core compliance work behind every fee starts with solid bookkeeping.

What moves a takeaway's accountancy fee up or down

Three things decide your fee, and none of them is how good your food is. They are your trading structure, whether you are registered for VAT, and how much bookkeeping your takings and delivery apps create. Understand those three and you can predict your own cost within a fairly tight band.

Structure is the first lever. A sole trader files one Self Assessment return a year. A limited company files annual accounts, a Corporation Tax return, a confirmation statement and usually a director's payroll and personal tax return on top. That is simply more filing, so a company costs more to run than a sole trader, often two to three times as much in pure compliance terms.

VAT is the second, and for takeaways it is the big one. Cross £90,000 of VAT-taxable turnover in any rolling twelve months and you must register, which adds quarterly returns under Making Tax Digital. Hot takeaway food is standard-rated once you register, so a fish and chip shop or a pizza takeaway reaches the line faster than a quiet cold-only sandwich bar. The quarter you cross it, your accountancy scope jumps.

Bookkeeping volume is the third. A takeaway taking cash, card and orders through Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo generates far more to reconcile than a single till. Every delivery app pays you net of commission, so the gross sales, the commission and the VAT all have to be unpicked and matched to your bank. More channels and more staff mean more bookkeeping, and the fee follows. The chart below shows how those levers stack into a typical monthly figure.

One quick note on the published numbers: every quote we issue is built off a standard fee schedule and confirmed in writing within 24 hours, so you never get a surprise invoice. You can see our full price list line by line before you ever speak to us.

Sole trader or limited company, and the VAT question that sits over both

Your legal structure sets your baseline fee, and your VAT status sits on top of it. A sole trader is the cheapest to look after, a limited company costs more but can save tax once profits grow, and being VAT-registered adds a layer of quarterly work whichever structure you choose.

If you trade as a sole trader, your accountant prepares one Self Assessment return covering your takeaway profit, your allowable expenses and your National Insurance. That is the £695-a-year job for most owners, sometimes a little more if your records need work. It is the right home for a small one-person operation that is comfortably below the VAT threshold.

If you run a limited company, the work multiplies. There are statutory accounts to file at Companies House, a Corporation Tax return for HMRC, a confirmation statement, director's payroll, and usually a personal tax return for you as the director. More filing means a higher fee, but above roughly £30,000 to £40,000 of profit the tax saving and the limited liability often justify it. Our sole trader versus limited company calculator gives you a quick read on where your takeaway sits.

VAT is the factor that catches takeaways out, because hot food sales add up quickly. Plenty of takeaways cross £90,000 of turnover within a year or two of opening, and the day you do, you have 30 days to register and start charging 20 percent VAT on hot food. That changes your margins and your bookkeeping at the same time. A takeaway near the line needs an accountant watching the rolling twelve-month total, not finding out at the year end. If you want the equivalent run-through for a sit-in venue rather than a takeaway, our guide on how much an accountant costs for a cafe sits alongside this one.

Is an accountant worth it for a takeaway? The maths

For most takeaways the answer is yes, because a good accountant tends to save or protect more than the fee costs, especially once VAT and delivery apps are in play. The test is simple: if the work claws back more in tax, time and avoided trouble than you pay, it has paid for itself. For a busy takeaway that bar is usually cleared inside the first quarter.

Think about where the value actually comes from. There is the tax saved by claiming every allowable expense correctly, from packaging and stock to the van, the EPOS till, cleaning and the business use of your phone. There is the time you get back, hours that would otherwise go on reconciling app payouts you can spend running the counter. And there is the cost you never see: the VAT registered a quarter too late, the hot and cold split done wrong, the cash records that do not stand up when HMRC asks. The illustration below puts rough numbers on it.

The maths only works one way, of course, if the accountant actually understands a takeaway. A generalist who treats you like any other small trader can still file your return on time, but they will not spot the hot-food VAT split, the delivery-app reconciliation or the cash-records risk. That is where the real money sits, and it is the gap the next section is about.

Hot-food VAT, delivery apps and cash: the takeaway-specific work a generalist misses

The fee a specialist charges buys three things a generalist routinely gets wrong for a takeaway: the hot-food VAT split, delivery-platform reconciliation, and cash records that survive an HMRC enquiry. Each one quietly costs takeaway owners money when it is handled badly.

Hot-food VAT is the first, and it is the one most generalists fumble. Once you are VAT-registered, hot takeaway food is standard-rated at 20 percent because it counts as a supply made in the course of catering. Cold takeaway food, a cold sandwich or a bottle of soft drink to go, is usually zero-rated, unless it is eaten on the premises. A takeaway selling both has to apportion its sales correctly, and getting that split wrong means either handing HMRC VAT you did not owe or facing an assessment for VAT you under-declared. HMRC sets out the rules in its VAT Notice 709/1 on catering and takeaway food.

Delivery-app income is the second. Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo pay you the amount left after their commission, but your real turnover is the gross order value before commission, and that gross figure is what counts toward the VAT threshold. Record only the bank deposit and you understate your sales, your VAT and your profit all at once. A specialist records the gross sale, books the commission as an expense, and reconciles the net payout to your bank so the numbers are right. This is the single most common mistake we see on takeaway books.

Cash records are the third. Takeaways are cash-heavy, and HMRC knows it, which makes the sector a regular target for enquiries using mark-up and cash-ratio checks. Clean daily takings records, an EPOS export that ties to the bank, and a sensible wastage and staff-meal policy are what make an enquiry a non-event. A takeaway near the VAT line also needs someone watching the rolling twelve-month total month by month, because HMRC is clear about exactly when you must register for VAT and the clock starts the moment you cross £90,000.

One more for 2026: Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. From April 2026, sole traders with gross income above £50,000 must keep digital records and file quarterly, not just once a year, and the threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027. A successful single-site takeaway turning over more than £50,000 is caught, and getting MTD-ready software in place ahead of time is part of what a switched-on accountant does for you.

What this means for you: choosing and pricing your takeaway accountant

Start by being honest about which setup you are and whether you are over the VAT line, because those two facts set your budget before you ring anyone. A small sole trader below the threshold should expect a low annual fee. A VAT-registered company with staff should expect a monthly fee in the low-to-mid hundreds, and should treat that as money well spent.

1. Know your structure. Sole trader or limited company. This single fact moves your fee more than anything else.
2. Check your turnover against £90,000. Hot food adds up fast, so if you are within shouting distance of the VAT threshold on a rolling twelve-month basis, factor in quarterly VAT work and get ahead of the registration.
3. Count your sales channels. Cash, card and each delivery app is another reconciliation. More channels mean more bookkeeping, which moves the fee.
4. Count who you pay. Every kitchen and counter employee adds payroll, pension and holiday admin to the monthly fee.
5. Value the sector knowledge. Hot-food VAT, delivery-app reconciliation and clean cash records are where a specialist earns the fee back. A slightly higher price that captures those is usually the cheaper option overall.

You can sense-check your own position in a free call with LOYALS, and we will tell you the one number that applies to your takeaway rather than a range. No pressure, no obligation, and a written quote within 24 hours if you want one.