Finding a good accountant for Ltd company?

mgtsol

Hi all,

I've had a ltd company for the past 4 or 5 years now. It's really just a vehicle to allow me to do some IT contracting, a regular thing. Turnover's about 6000 pounds a year, so not a great deal for this kind of thing, and the accounts are very simple. I have a small accountant who charges me around 700 pounds to do end of year taxes and also to be listed as the company secretary with Companies House. This started off cheap but has been creeping up by 50-100 pounds each year, so now I want to find someone a bit cheaper. When you add the accountancy fees to the actual corporate tax, it's a significant chunk of my turnover.

Can anyone recommend any good resources for finding someone satisfactory. How much should I be paying for this kind of service anyway - I'm not entirely sure of the typical cost but obviously if I'm paying below the odds I'll stick with the guy I've got.

Thanks

theesel1994

If the accounts are that simple then why not do them yourself?
I know there is that old saying that an accountant will save you more in tax than his fees - but it doesn't seem likely in this case.
Also, is a Company Secretary even needed? I thought the rules were changed doing away with the requirement to have a Company Secretary in certain cases.

Horace

I thought that under new rulings company secretaries were no longer needed.

As for accountants..find someone that you like and trust..I found mine by networking. You could always ask the bank if they could recommend anyone, also if you are in the FSB - there could be a member business who is an accountant or even your local chamber they will have members who are accountants.

heretolearn_2

Forget the Company Secretary side - it's not necessary and even when it was, it's very simple to do yourself. Just submit the annual return once a year on-line, boom, done.

On the accounts - the financial statements - they do have to reach a certain standard and be in a certain format to be accepted by companies house, so I wouldn't try to do those yourself. Is the accountant doing the bookkeeping as well? If so, you've got a bargain. If not, it's about low to mid-range fees you are paying.

I'm a partner in an accountancy firm and small companies can often have problems with the expenses of running a Ltd - you need to work out whether you'd be better off as a sole trader, paying a bit more tax, but only needing a basic tax return. From the accountants point of view, there isn't a lot less work in a small company, so we can't reduce the fees much. Processing a transaction that reads £100 takes just as much time as processing a transaction that reads £1000.

Okeydokey_3

It is not necessay to have a Company Secretary, so maybe you could negotiate with your current accountant to strip out all the unneccesary extras that are being included in their fees.

If you still can't get the fees down to a sensible figure (a couple of hundred pounds) have a look at peopleperhour.com for freelance accountants and book-keepers at reasonable rates.

Loopgames

Try a lady from cheapaccounting dot co dot uk - I think she charges £30 per month for limited companies. Very very cheap!

I use mazuma money who are based in cardiff...they also do my book keeping for only £55 + Vat per month.

Nazitf

heretolearn wrote: »

Forget the Company Secretary side - it's not necessary and even when it was, it's very simple to do yourself. Just submit the annual return once a year on-line, boom, done.

Also don't forget to submit your P14 and P35 forms at the end of each tax year.

butlinsmum

My sister is my accountant so I don't have this problem but if the accounts are straight forward personally I'd look at doing them myself