We list 53 accountancy firms across Blackburn and Darwen with their Google ratings. Pick one yourself, or send one short request and we match you with up to 4 that will quote for your Making Tax Digital updates.
Blackburn with Darwen
Claimed firms first, then by number of Google reviews. Ratings come from each firm’s Google Business Profile (36 of 53 have reviews). Any paid placement is labelled Sponsored.
Example: how your firm could look here
Your office address, Blackburn
★★★★★ Your Google rating and reviews
Two lines in your own words: who you help, how you handle the quarterly updates, and what a sole trader or landlord pays.
Unit 4, Dalton Court Commercial Rd, Dalton Court, Darwen, BB3 0DG
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
55B Regent St, BB1 6BH
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
Unit 1a, Dalton Court Commercial Rd, Dalton Court, Darwen, BB3 0DG
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
7 WELLINGTON STREET, ST JOHN'S, BB1 8AF
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
Ground Floor, Capricorn House, capricorn park, Blakewater Rd, BB1 5QR
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
Not sure who to pick? Let us match you.
Not sure which firm suits you? One form, up to 4 quotes. Free.
Office, Kent Street Mill, 15 Kent St, BB1 1DE
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
Mentor House, Ainsworth St, BB1 6AY
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
Suite 14 Freckleton Business Centre Freckleton Street, BB2 2AL
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
Phoenix Park, Glenfield Park Business Centre, Blakewater Rd, BB1 5BG
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
Richmond Chambers, Richmond Terrace, BB1 7AR
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
40C Preston New Rd, BB2 6AH
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
1 Limbrick, BB1 8AB
Free · we’ll also match you with up to 3 more · Your firm?
Is your firm missing or wrong? Claim or correct your listing.
Some Blackburn practices have been getting people ready for Making Tax Digital face to face. On 25 September 2025, PM+M ran a free, no-booking drop-in day at New Century House on Greenbank Technology Park, open to anyone, not just its clients, for sole traders and landlords who wanted to know what the change meant for them. In December 2025 it held a breakfast seminar on MTD for Income Tax at Junction 4 Skatepark in Darwen. Both were reported by Lancashire Business View.
That matters because the real work in MTD is not the software. It is handing your tax affairs over to someone properly, so they can act for you with HMRC. The firms above can all do that; the guide below explains how it works.
Handing over to an accountant
HMRC calls it the digital handshake: you approve your accountant online, and from then on it can deal with HMRC for you. Here is what happens, in order, from GOV.UK’s own guidance.
Quarterly updates only, the final declaration only, or both. This decides whether the firm becomes your main agent or a supporting agent.
It asks HMRC, through its agent services account, to send you an authorisation request. It usually arrives by email.
Use the sign-in details for your own tax account. Read the consent statement, which is different for a main and a supporting agent. You may be asked to confirm your identity.
If you are not already using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, your agent can sign you up, as long as you have filed a Self Assessment return before.
Agree how you will see each update and the final declaration before it goes. HMRC still holds you responsible for what is submitted.
The link HMRC sends lasts 21 days. Never share your own sign-in details with a firm; a genuine accountant will not ask for them. Source: GOV.UK, authorise an agent.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax lets you split the work. You can have one main agent at a time and any number of supporting agents. A main agent can do almost everything you can; a supporting agent sees only your business and property income and can send the quarterly updates, but cannot finalise your tax position.
| What they can do | Main agent | Supporting agent |
|---|---|---|
| Send quarterly updates | Yes | Yes |
| Sign you up or add an income source | Yes | Yes |
| See your tax calculation | Yes | No |
| Submit the final declaration | Yes | No |
| How many you can have | One at a time | Any number |
This is useful in a town with as many small practices as Blackburn. A bookkeeper on Limbrick or in one of the business centres around Appleby Street can send your four updates as a supporting agent, while a larger firm at Greenbank or Phoenix Park does the final declaration as your main agent. Ask each firm which role it expects to take, and make sure the two talk to each other.
If you move to a new main agent, your previous main agent loses access. HMRC asks you to tell the old firm when you do it. Supporting agents stay in place when you add another. The safest time to switch is straight after an update has gone, which gives the new firm a full quarter to set up your records before the next deadline. If you are moving from one Blackburn firm to another, ask the new firm to get the authorisation request to you before your old firm stops work, so there is no gap.
Darwen (BB3) has its own accountants rather than relying on Blackburn. 7 of the firms on this page are there, several of them side by side at Dalton Court on Commercial Road. Others are on Borough Road and Pole Lane. The town is best known for Darwen Tower, built on the moor in 1898, and the 300-foot India Mill chimney on Bolton Road. Turton and Edgworth also fall within the borough, though they use Bolton BL7 postcodes.
Most of the borough’s practices are in BB1: the town centre around King Street, Richmond Terrace and Limbrick, the business centres at Daisyfield on Appleby Street, Greenbank Technology Park on Challenge Way, and the Beehive at Shadsworth Business Park. BB2 covers Ewood, Mill Hill, Witton, Feniscowles and Cherry Tree. Be careful with addresses: Wilpshire, Mellor and Rishton carry BB1 or BB2 postcodes but sit in Ribble Valley or Hyndburn, not in Blackburn with Darwen.
Blackburn with Darwen Council sends businesses to Growth Lancashire, which gives fully funded, impartial business advice from Duke Street in the town centre and has run free workshops and drop-in clinics through the Blackburn with Darwen Business Hub at Eanam Wharf. Boost, Lancashire’s business growth hub, has a free helpdesk on 0800 488 0057. The East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce covers the area from its base in Accrington. None of them will send your updates, but they can help with everything around them.
Blackburn and Darwen questions
Your accountant asks HMRC to send you an authorisation request, usually by email as a link. You open it, sign in with the details you use for your own tax account, check what you are agreeing to and accept. Never give your sign-in details to the accountant instead.
HMRC says the link expires after 21 days. If you miss it, ask your accountant to send a new one.
Your main agent can do almost everything you can do in Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, including sending the final declaration and seeing your tax calculation. You can have only one main agent at a time.
A supporting agent has narrower access. It can sign you up, add or stop a business or property income source and send quarterly updates, but cannot finalise your tax position or submit your return. You can have as many supporting agents as you like, for example a bookkeeper who does the quarterly updates while a chartered firm does the year end.
If you appoint a new main agent, the previous main agent loses access to your account. HMRC asks you to tell your current main agent when you do this. Adding a supporting agent does not remove anyone.
Yes. HMRC is clear that you remain responsible for your own tax affairs and should check your return is right before your agent submits it. That is one reason to choose a firm that explains what it is sending in your name.
No. HMRC says an agent can only sign you up to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax if you are registered for Self Assessment and have already submitted a tax return.
Yes. 7 of the firms on this page are in Darwen, several of them together at Dalton Court on Commercial Road. They serve the whole borough.
Sole traders and landlords whose turnover and gross rents together were over £30,000 on their 2025 to 2026 tax return. Wages, pensions and dividends do not count towards that figure.
The council points businesses to Growth Lancashire, which offers fully funded, impartial business advice from its office on Duke Street in Blackburn. Boost, Lancashire’s growth hub, runs a free helpdesk on 0800 488 0057.
No. Asking for quotes is free and there is no obligation. We pass your request to no more than four firms and you decide whether to go ahead.
Yes. Because you can have one main agent and any number of supporting agents, it is common to pair a bookkeeper who sends the quarterly updates with an accountant who handles the final declaration. Make sure each knows what the other is doing.