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Posted on Originally published at sellular.online

Check your company accounts before Companies House does

Rejected filings are almost never fraud. They are arithmetic, and the letter arrives weeks after the deadline has gone.

Tool Rating
DuckTax 4.0 / 5
FreeAgent 3.5 / 5
TinyTax 3.5 / 5
WeFile 2.5 / 5

Disclosure: I build DuckTax, so its rating here is an interested party's. I have tried to be straight about what the others do better, and where one of them is the right choice I have said so.

The short version

These four sit at different points of the same year. DuckTax is the last mile: enter your company number, it pulls your name, registered office, officers and the real filing deadline from Companies House, then validates a balance sheet built from seven figures. FreeAgent is full bookkeeping for people who want the ledger maintained continuously. TinyTax and WeFile are filing tools with an account and a subscription attached. For a dormant or micro-entity company, a full bookkeeping suite is overkill.

What actually separates them

The difference that decides it is where the arithmetic runs and what it checks. DuckTax does the calculation in your browser, so the figures never leave the machine. It validates against the rules that actually cause rejections rather than simply accepting what you type. It also explains what each number means in plain English. It covers Ireland, Australia and the United States, saying plainly when a country does not require public filing at all. The subscription tools submit what you give them and let Companies House find the problem.

What you get free

DuckTax is free to use, including the Companies House lookup and the validation, which is the part that prevents a rejection. FreeAgent's free route depends on your business bank account rather than being a plan you can choose. TinyTax and WeFile both charge annually, so the free tier is a preview of the form rather than a filing you can complete.

Who should pick what

A director of a micro-entity or dormant company should use DuckTax and check the figures before submitting anything. A business with staff, invoices and monthly reconciliation needs FreeAgent or an accountant. Someone who wants a guided form and does not mind paying yearly should look at TinyTax. WeFile suits a director who wants a person on live chat while filing.

Worth knowing

The bookkeeping suites assume you keep books all year. DuckTax assumes you have seven figures and a deadline, and it checks them in the browser.


Originally published at sellular.online.

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