Specialist chartered accountants for London restaurants, takeaways and dark kitchens.

Most food and drink served in a restaurant, pub, bar or café is standard-rated at 20% VAT. Cold takeaway food (for example, a sandwich in a bag taken off-premises) is generally zero-rated. Hot takeaway food remains standard-rated. The split between eat-in and takeaway, and hot vs cold, creates significant complexity, and errors are the most common reason London hospitality businesses face HMRC penalties. LOYALS configures your EPOS to capture VAT correctly at the point of sale and reviews your split monthly so any drift gets caught before HMRC does.

A tronc is a formal pooled tip arrangement administered by an independent troncmaster (not a director or owner). Tips distributed through a properly constituted tronc are exempt from Employer NIC, which is currently 15% above the £5,000 Secondary Threshold from April 2025. A restaurant distributing £5,000/month in tips through a compliant tronc saves £9,000/year in Employer NIC. The Tipping Act 2024 (in force October 2024) makes a written tronc policy effectively mandatory if you collect any tips or service charges. LOYALS sets up compliant tronc schemes for London hospitality clients and runs the ongoing administration.

From April 2025 the Employer NIC rate rose from 13.8% to 15% and the secondary threshold dropped from £9,100 to £5,000 per employee per year. A restaurant with 12 staff each working 30 hours per week at £12.71/hour now pays approximately £20,000 more per year in Employer NIC than under the 2024/25 regime. Multi-employee restaurants can claim the £10,500 Employment Allowance, which covers Employer NIC up to that amount. A properly run tronc scheme also reduces NIC on tips. Use the calculator above to model your specific exposure.

Platform commissions of 15% to 35% per order must be reconciled against gross sales. Since 2024 the platforms report your gross transaction data directly to HMRC under the DAC7 reporting regime, so your reported turnover must match. The most common (and expensive) mistake is reporting net income (after commission) instead of gross income with commissions deducted as a separate expense. LOYALS reconciles all delivery platform statements monthly, ensuring gross turnover matches HMRC data and commissions, packaging costs and platform fees are claimed in full.

MTD for Income Tax (MTD ITSA) Phase 1 went LIVE on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with combined gross income above £50,000. If you operate your restaurant as a sole trader above that threshold, you are now required to maintain digital records and submit four quarterly updates plus a final declaration each year. Your first quarterly deadline (Q1 covering 6 April to 5 July 2026) falls on 7 August 2026. Phase 2 brings the threshold down to £30,000 from April 2027 and Phase 3 to £20,000 from April 2028. Limited company restaurants are not affected yet. LOYALS handles the full MTD setup including software selection, digital record-keeping and quarterly filing. Read our deep MTD ITSA guide.

The right structure depends on profit levels, growth plans and personal circumstances. After the April 2025 Employer NIC increase and the dividend allowance cut to £500, single-director limited companies extracting all profit are not as automatically tax-efficient as they once were. For most restaurants with profit between £30,000 and £100,000 and a single owner-operator, sole trader is currently competitive on tax. Limited company structure tends to win where you have a spouse or partner who can be a 50% shareholder, where you want to retain profits in the business at 19% Corporation Tax instead of extracting at 40% personal tax, or where you need limited liability protection from supplier and lease commitments. Use our free Sole Trader vs Ltd Calculator to model your position.

LOYALS Premium Accounting starts at £150/month plus VAT and includes VAT returns, payroll, tronc administration and professional invoice management for single-site restaurants. Business Mentor is £250/month plus VAT with dedicated strategic support. The Business Growth Programme at £2,000/month plus VAT provides a complete business team including marketing, legal and sales coaching for scaling operators. All packages include WhatsApp support and Mon to Sat 10am to 7pm availability.

Hospitality business rates relief dropped from 75% to 40% from April 2025, capped at £110,000 per business. Many London restaurants and pubs saw their rates bills increase materially. A full business rates revaluation is due 1 April 2026 based on updated rateable values. LOYALS reviews your rateable value, identifies challenge opportunities through formal Check Challenge Appeal, and ensures every available relief is claimed.

You must register for VAT when taxable turnover exceeds £90,000 in any rolling 12-month period (the threshold has been £90,000 since 1 April 2024), or if you expect to exceed it within the next 30 days. Many central London restaurants reach this within their first year of trading. Voluntary registration below the threshold can also be beneficial if you make significant input-VAT-bearing purchases (kitchen fit-out, equipment, refurbishment). LOYALS monitors your turnover, advises on optimal registration timing, handles the registration and manages ongoing returns.

Yes. Our King's Cross office serves restaurants and hospitality operators across all 32 London boroughs plus the City of London, with strong client clusters in Westminster, Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Greenwich, Lewisham and Newham. Most client work is conducted via WhatsApp, video call and secure portal upload, so geographical proximity to the office is not a constraint.