buying a house....

[eFestivals]

I have a LTD so I need to do quite a bit more than just a a tax return... VAT, Payroll, interaction with HMRC, End of Year filing....

My accountant costs me around £1000 a year... Leaves me with about 10 mins work a month to do and they do the rest. Money well spent....

PMSL - so it's suddenly over £1k a year you're paying, after first saying just £75

But if you need an accountant for VAT or for payroll you don't have the accountancy knowledge you think you have.

[eFestivals]

I probably could do payroll and VAT fine but its more cost effective to let them do it... and any free time i want with the family and not the books...

yeah, I know what you mean. That 10 seconds I spend doing the payroll each month and the 20 seconds on the VAT every three months is killing my relationship with my son.

[eFestivals]

I guess you are using computer software to do it... Most the software I looked at couldn't handle flat rate VAT for a start... Although that was about three years ago now...

It would take me longer than that to do it by hand....

Anyway, there is more going on than just VAT and Payroll...

your tax affairs from what you've said are less complicated than mine.

As for flat rate VAT, it's a piece of piss. If you really need an accountant to do that or even software you're mightily dim.

[Gre]

ah... Gre is here... Let him justify his existence

EDIT: oh he has gone

[feral chile]

I was in the F1 thread

Don't really know what to add... £75 sounds about right for a tax return if all you've got is a bit of salary, interest & dividends. And £1k sounds about right for a simple-ish Ltd company with payroll, bookkeeping/management accounts, bit of p11d, annual accounts & whatever else might come up during the year. But we're in a relatively cheap part of the country - you won't find many people who are good down south who will do it for that price.

It all comes down to whether we save or cost you money in the long run. Not everyone needs an accountant by any means.

(I'm quite aware of the moral/ethics side of my profession, but I sleep very well at night.)

[feral chile]

Sorry are people talking about hmrc and describing them as helpful? Fuck that!

I have had an ongoing two year battle with them about my apparent under payment in tax for the years 07-08, 08-09 and 09-10. Because did you know they are currently working at around two years behind and their post all gets put in a room in bags before they get round to dealing with it?! What kind of company works like that?! They never answer the phone and when they reply in writing it's a standard letter which ignores any questions you may have asked in ways to resolve such an important matter. I am still waiting to receive a phonecall back from 'sarah's' manager with regards to whether they would be able to chase my previous employers for the underpayment in tax since it appears the fault was on their part not mine and through all of this I have also funnily enough received a cheque for £100 for my now apparent over payment of tax at my new place. I haven't cashed it. I will be sending it them back when ever they start demanding the £2,500 they are adamant I owe...well, it would be a start to the payments at least!

[Gre]

Is that for clients with other tax affairs that you deal with, or for someone who just wants one tax return a year completed?

[Katster]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience though Kat - hope it gets sorted out for you soon.