Spec me an accountant

drakioned

drakioned

drakioned

Associate
Joined
11 Dec 2008
Posts
1,334
Location
London
I almost certainly messed up a self assessment last year and would like some professional help to fix it and not to stuff it up this year.

Anybody have a good accountant for self assessment that don't want to charge £500+VAT?

Cheers in advance
 
Self assessment are their bread and butter, my niece does all of her families. They will have the software to whip it up in no time, unless yours is super complexed. Any local account should be able to help.
 
Not sure how you mess up Self Assessment - it's pretty straight forward and there plenty of guides from HMRC to help out.

To be honest - most accountants don't really want a simple SA as there is very little money in it and probably more hassle than it's worth.

Last time I had SA done it was around £250 + VAT but that was about 8 years ago. I still SA but have Ltd company accounts as well now with accountant.
 
booyaka said:
Not sure how you mess up Self Assessment - it's pretty straight forward and there plenty of guides from HMRC to help out.
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Pension taper problems.

But also, two different accountants have told me to find somebody else, and the one that is confident they can help want £500+VAT...
 
drakioned said:
Pension taper problems.

But also, two different accountants have told me to find somebody else, and the one that is confident they can help want £500+VAT...
Click to expand...

Pretty much what I said - accoutants really don't want small once a year jobs....It's not cost effective/profit making to take on 100 clients at £300 all just wanting SA at the same time of the year. Hence why your getting told they don't want it.

Then at the other end - "ok, we'll do it but we want £500 + VAT"

I guess it's really just a case of whether you are "saving" yourself the time and hassle for £500 + vat.......

Same in lots of markets/areas at the moment - Plumbers / Sparkies etc etc - no one wants the "small" jobs as they simply aren't cost effective/profit making. I know even in my business I turned away a potential client this week as they simply aren't going to be "worth" it to the business long term.... They will cost me more in time / paperwork / hours spent than I will get back in fees.... It's just a harsh reality of the business world these days.
 
Anything less than £500 probably isn't going to be worth anyone's time.

HMRC can be quite helpful if you call them, or there's a bunch of forums where you could get some help.
 
I don’t understand why they just don’t get the office junior to do it and for a senior member of staff just to check them over. They should have the IT systems to bang in the numbers and they just need to transfer them over to the gov system or print them out so you can.

When I was looking at getting a car on lease or HP… my nephew in law just whipped out his laptop and banged in the numbers to see what method was the cheapest.

The days of writing numbers into a ledger and using a calculator are long over. Most people’s taxes ain’t that hard. It’s not like they are running two side businesses at home, having a full time job, renting out properties, getting income from capital gains and have taxable interest like my nephew..
 
it would be better if the pension companies just talked to the government directly and just deduct whatever. All of this stuff is submitted to HMRC anyway.
 
slinxy said:
I don’t understand why they just don’t get the office junior to do it and for a senior member of staff just to check them over. They should have the IT systems to bang in the numbers and they just need to transfer them over to the gov system or print them out so you can.

When I was looking at getting a car on lease or HP… my nephew in law just whipped out his laptop and banged in the numbers to see what method was the cheapest.

The days of writing numbers into a ledger and using a calculator are long over. Most people’s taxes ain’t that hard. It’s not like they are running two side businesses at home, having a full time job, renting out properties, getting income from capital gains and have taxable interest like my nephew..
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Like all these things, there’s a lot of faff involved before you get to the point of the office junior whacking in the numbers, and you have to price in your client being a total muppet if you’re quoting a fixed fee. £500 might sound a lot but once you’ve factored in all your overheads and wages, it doesn’t go far.
 
drakioned said:
it would be better if the pension companies just talked to the government directly and just deduct whatever. All of this stuff is submitted to HMRC anyway.
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when/if they get the centralised pension system setup, this may be possible....
 
I don't mind spending the time to learn what I need to each year for SA. All those accountancy fees add up over the years. I don't think it's ever taken me more than a few hours and you would have to spend most of that time anyway to prepare the inputs an accountant would need from you. Not surprised at all it would be £500 or so for an accountant.
 
I've done my own self assessment for the past decade, but this year I used an accountant recommended to me from a colleague.

They went through my past couple of years of details and ended up claiming for a few things I didn't know about. I ended up getting a decent amount back from HMRC. I won't be doing my own again as it was stress free.

Contact: [email protected]
 
Hellsmk2 said:
I've done my own self assessment for the past decade, but this year I used an accountant recommended to me from a colleague.

They went through my past couple of years of details and ended up claiming for a few things I didn't know about. I ended up getting a decent amount back from HMRC. I won't be doing my own again as it was stress free.

Contact: [email protected]
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how much did they cost?
 
drakioned said:
Pension taper problems.

But also, two different accountants have told me to find somebody else, and the one that is confident they can help want £500+VAT...
Click to expand...

If it’s pension related you may be better with a tax specialist, but if it’s a PAYE from an employer it should be handled at source. The only area if you are drawing a pension already and limitations of future contributions. Pensions are not just the preserve of accountants, a good independent financial adviser.

If it’s your own business, then you have a lot of flexibility especially if you haven’t used full contributions in previous years. Even if you are employed, then speak to pensions to see if you can make increased contributions as a one-off or monthly. Finally, good advice could well be worth £500+VAT.
 
ilc72 said:
If it’s pension related you may be better with a tax specialist, but if it’s a PAYE from an employer it should be handled at source. The only area if you are drawing a pension already and limitations of future contributions. Pensions are not just the preserve of accountants, a good independent financial adviser.

If it’s your own business, then you have a lot of flexibility especially if you haven’t used full contributions in previous years. Even if you are employed, then speak to pensions to see if you can make increased contributions as a one-off or monthly. Finally, good advice could well be worth £500+VAT.
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It's dumber than that.

I paid too much money into my pension and I have to pay tax on the excess, but I want someone who knows what they're doing to help me calculate the excess and correct the return.
 
drakioned said:
how much did they cost?
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Couple of hundred for the last self assessment, but a couple hundred more to go through the previous years - I'd asked them to go further back to check I'd been doing it right because I'd had nothing but issues with my tax code (I'd been doing it right, but was worth the extra for peace of mind).
 
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