MMBA provides specialist accounting, tax, audit and advisory support for travel agencies, tour operators and hospitality businesses across the United Kingdom.
MMBA acts for travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, restaurants, catering businesses and other hospitality operators across the UK. We combine routine financial compliance with the sector-specific issues that can materially affect how these businesses report, plan and remain compliant. If you hold an ATOL, our designated ATOL Reporting Accountant (ARA) supports you with the reporting your licence requires.
Travel and hospitality businesses deal with advance customer payments, seasonal cash flows, high transaction volumes, overseas suppliers, specialist VAT rules, regulatory reporting, variable staffing and complex revenue streams. MMBA builds its accounting support around how your business operates, not simply year-end accounts prepared after the event.
We look at the facts behind each transaction, because the same transaction can have different accounting, VAT or regulatory results. A travel company acting partly as principal and partly as agent needs each model treated separately. Hotel deposits taken months before a stay, and restaurant sales across dine-in, takeaway and catering, each need their own treatment, never a generic one.
We make the financial records of travel agencies and tour operators work beyond annual accounts. We reconcile booking activity, customer money, supplier payments, VAT treatment and regulatory information together, so each one supports the others.
We build our work around the way your business trades, whether you sell as principal, act as a disclosed or undisclosed agent or operate under ATOL. The same records then support both compliance and management decisions. Our travel accountants help you with:
We support travel agencies, tour operators and other travel businesses, as well as hotels and restaurants, with accounts, tax, management reporting and audit. Your accounting records, VAT position and regulatory information work together rather than separate exercises.
We account for commission income, money received and paid on behalf of others, and refunds. We also confirm whether you act as a disclosed or undisclosed agent for each sale, so your VAT and revenue are reported correctly.
We support tour operators that buy in travel services and resell them as principal. Our work covers TOMS VAT calculations, margin and cash flow reporting through each booking cycle, and a statutory audit where your size requires one.
We work with ATOL holders of every licence type, from Small Business to Standard ATOLs, and make sure your accounts agree with the passenger and licensable revenue figures your licence requires. Learn about ATOL Reporting Accountant.
We also work with other travel and tourism businesses that take advance customer payments, pay overseas suppliers and trade through seasonal peaks. We cover bookkeeping, multi-currency treatment, management reporting and year-end accounts.
We work with hotels, restaurants, caterers and leisure operators on accounts, VAT, payroll, tips and tronc, and audit. See our hospitality accounting services further down this page.
Tell us how your business sells travel, and we will confirm what your accounts, VAT and ATOL reporting need. Choose a video or audio call at a time that suits you.
Mirza Sonaver Baig MA, FCCA, is a Director of MMBA and leads our travel and hospitality work. As a designated ATOL Reporting Accountant (ARA), he also reviews ATOL reporting for our travel clients and coordinates it with the accounts, VAT and audit work our team carries out.
A Chartered Certified Accountant (CCA), he has more than 15 years’ experience, part of it as a ATOL consultant.
From ATOL reporting to year-end audit, we handle the accounts, VAT, tax and regulatory work travel businesses need, using one consistent set of records.
Our designated ATOL Reporting Accountant (ARA) reviews and approves your Annual Accountants’ Report (AAR). After we reconcile your passenger and licensable revenue figures to your accounts. Requirements differ between licence types, so we confirm the CAA requirement for each one. Explore our ATOL reporting services.
We support travel businesses applying for IATA accreditation or ABTA membership or holding either alongside their ATOL. We prepare the applications, accounts and supporting documents for each financial assessment, help you obtain any financial security bond needed and carry out an external audit where one is required.
We prepare and file corporation tax returns and support owners and directors with personal tax planning and Self Assessment. We also cover capital allowances, employment taxes and director remuneration, and assess whether your booking technology meets the qualifying criteria for R&D tax relief.
We help you choose and set up accounting software that works with your booking or back-office system, with reports for CAA returns, VAT and month-end. Our management accounts track margins, supplier commitments, customer balances and cash flow through each booking cycle, showing whether profit on paper is backed by cash.
We confirm from your contracts whether you act as principal, disclosed or undisclosed agent, and whether revenue is shown gross or net. Where the Tour Operators’ Margin Scheme (TOMS) applies, we prepare your TOMS calculations. Where you act as a disclosed agent, we account for VAT on your commission under the normal VAT rules.
As ACCA Registered Auditors, we carry out statutory audits, compliance audits for regulators and voluntary audits for lenders or shareholders. Our audit gives reasonable assurance that your accounts are free from material misstatement. We focus on customer deposits, supplier balances, TOMS, booking-system data, refunds, foreign currency and principal-versus-agent revenue.
Read how MMBA supports businesses across the UK, in our clients’ own words.
We work with hotels, restaurants, catering businesses and leisure operators on accounts, tax, VAT, payroll, audit and management reporting. Alongside statutory compliance, we help you monitor margins, staffing, cash flow and performance.
We set up clear reporting across your accommodation, food and drink, functions and other revenue streams, linked to occupancy, average daily rate and RevPAR. We also handle your VAT, payroll, tax and audit, so management works from one consistent set of figures.
We give restaurants and caterers reliable control over gross margins and labour cost, and reconcile EPOS, card and delivery-platform settlements to the accounts. Your management information stays useful throughout the year, not only when annual accounts are prepared.
We give each supply the right VAT treatment, from standard-rated catering and most hot takeaway food to qualifying zero-rated cold takeaway food. Room hire is often exempt unless you have opted to tax and hotel stays over 28 days follow a special rule.
We run payroll for seasonal staff, service charges, tips and tronc schemes, where independent tronc payments usually carry no National Insurance but still go through PAYE. We also help you meet the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 and its statutory Code of Practice from 1 October 2024.
As ACCA Registered Auditors, we provide statutory and voluntary audits for hospitality businesses. Our work pays close attention to revenue completeness, cash and card settlements, stock, payroll and going concern, so your accounts give a fair picture of the business.
We handle your Corporation Tax or Self-Assessment, from annual returns to planning for refurbishments and fit outs. This covers capital allowances on kitchen equipment, fixtures and other qualifying plant and the split between repairs and improvements. We also check the reliefs available to you, so you pay the correct amount of tax.
MMBA has served clients since 2009 as an ACCA Member Firm and ACCA Registered Auditors, led by directors who are Fellows of ACCA(FCCA). Our Director, Mirza Sonaver Baig MA, FCCA, is a designated ATOL Reporting Accountant (ARA).
We give travel businesses specialist TOMS and principal-versus-agent support. For hotels and restaurants, we structure accounting and management reporting around how you operate.
Accounts, tax, VAT, payroll, capital allowances, audit, cloud accounting and reconciliation support all come from one team. We work from four UK offices in London, Preston, Luton and Cambridge.
0203 355 0841
From ATOL reporting and TOMS VAT to hospitality payroll and audit, one team handles your accounts, tax and compliance. Tell us what you need, call 0203 355 0841 or send us a message.
Read our guides on ATOL renewal, licence costs, complaints, ATOL protection and the difference between ABTA and ATOL.
Travel businesses face TOMS VAT, ATOL reporting, principal-versus-agent questions, and customer deposits that most other sectors do not. A specialist accountant deals with these together rather than unrelated compliance tasks.
A travel agency can receive and pay money on behalf of others, earn commissions, act as principal in some sales and agent in others, and deal in several currencies. Its accounting system needs to separate these flows clearly.
Yes. Our Director, Mirza Sonaver Baig MA, FCCA, is a designated ATOL Reporting Accountant (ARA). He supports ATOL holders with their licence requirements, and our ATOL reporting services page explains what we cover.
Yes, where MMBA is eligible and appointed for both. They remain in separate engagements, but one team can coordinate the timetable and information requests.
Yes. We help travel businesses with TOMS analysis and calculations, including whether the business acts as principal, disclosed agent or undisclosed agent.
Yes. We provide accounting, tax, VAT, payroll, audit and management reporting for hotels, restaurants, catering businesses and other hospitality operators.
From day 29 of a continuous stay by the same guest, VAT is charged only on the part of the price for facilities other than the room. That part must be at least 20% of the total charge for accommodation and facilities, as HMRC’s hotel VAT guidance explains. Meals and other extras charged separately stay standard-rated.
Tips are taxable income for the employee. Tips paid through payroll go through PAYE and National Insurance, while payments from an independent tronc are usually free of National Insurance but still taxed through PAYE. Staff who receive cash tips directly must declare them to HMRC themselves.
Yes. We agree with the scope you need and manage the professional handover from your current accountant once you decide to proceed.
