Do you know accountant who helps tiny sole traderships?

suzie.saves

Hey folks,

I'm a new sole trader with very low turnover & have been managing my own accounts so far, using info on BusinessLink, HMRC website & so forth.

However, it looks like I'm actually going to exceed the personal tax threshold this year. I'd really like some advice about how to keep my tax down, but I can't afford to pay a large regular percentage of my income to a book-keeping accountant.

Do you know, or have you heard of an accountant who will help with such matters for a low fee?

I wonder if it would even be worth my while to pay someone to save less than I'm paying them, but it might have longer-term benefits.

Thanks!

Alison_B

I just went to a local accountant and spoke with him. When I first started off, he only charged me £250 for his services but we did put all the information onto a spread sheet for him, so saved him a bit of work. Now that my business has grown, I pay a little bit more than I did. So might be worth speaking with someone local to you.

sammatty

As an a ex practice accountant (no certificate to practice alone, so I'm not touting for business).

Smaller firms will be the best to deal with, and some will offer an hours meeting with a Partner/Senior level Manager for free. What area of the country are you? I may be able to give you some names!

Costs for a tax return to be prepared for you (if you do as much of the book keeping work yourself) would be £150-£200.

Also remember that anything that goes in to HM Revenue and Customs is from you personally, so you can decide how aggressive you wish to be in respect of tax saving methods.

antrobus

suzie.saves wrote: »

Do you know, or have you heard of an accountant who will help with such matters for a low fee?

Yes. But what you're looking for is a local accountant, so you're not going to get any specific recommendations on MSE without giving some indications about where you live.

I would suggest that you ask around your friends and family. Somebody's cousin might be self-employed plumber who sings the praises of his personal beancounter. But stick to accountants that have a proper qualification and a practicing certificate.

accountingbod

Just to follow on from my previous post Suzie, looking at the posts after mine, perhaps best to find an accountant that has a practicing certificate?
To the other posters, silly question, but what is a practicing certificate? And how do you apply for one? I figured as long as you were insured and qualified to a level suiting your business then the requirements were met?

Thanks

accountingbod

antrobus... believe it or not, even as a part qualified i still believe i can offer help and advice. Just because i am not fully qualified does not mean that i do not have the skills or knowledge to understand accounting.
Maybe something to do with the fact that i currently work as a management accountant and prepare management accounts every month which helps and also my own reading and study.
Unfortunately you can only take 4 exams every 6 months and with 14 to take, you are in fact limited to how quickly you can pass.

please dont judge based on my part-qualified status.
My offer for help is pro-active and i do have indemnity insurance as i am starting up in bookeeping already.

rant over...

antrobus

accountingbod wrote: »

antrobus... believe it or not, even as a part qualified i still believe i can offer help and advice. Just because i am not fully qualified does not mean that i do not have the skills or knowledge to understand accounting.

Yes but do you hold a practicing certificate?

accountingbod wrote: »

Maybe something to do with the fact that i currently work as a management accountant and prepare management accounts every month which helps and also my own reading and study.

No tax experience then.

accountingbod wrote: »

Unfortunately you can only take 4 exams every 6 months and with 14 to take, you are in fact limited to how quickly you can pass.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

accountingbod wrote: »

please dont judge based on my part-qualified status.
My offer for help is pro-active and i do have indemnity insurance as i am starting up in bookeeping already.

I'm not judging you, I'm warning you. There's a world of difference between doing a bit of bookkeeping and offering tax advice. The ICAEW for one would chuck you out if they found out who you were.

pitkin2020

Find a local independent accountant and give them a ring to discuss what you need, most are very helpful and will tell you straight if they will take you on as a client or not. Personally I have always done my own accounts throughout the year and just have the account do the end of year report and he then double checks everything ensuring everything that can be claimed has been claimed. You really don't need a book keeper by the sounds of it. Remember though if you prepare all the information neatly like on a spreadsheet or similar it will be cheaper for the accountant to sort through than if you just hand him a shoe box of invoices and receipts lol.

accountingbod

ok, no worries Antrobus.
I guess i'm just being a bit too keen on my ambitions at the moment.
Will stick to bookeeping for the time being until fully qualified.
I really dont want to compromise my studies by doing something which would then disqualify me.

Apologies to OP if discussion went slightly off-centre.

Thanks

Pennywise

accountingbod wrote: »

antrobus... believe it or not, even as a part qualified i still believe i can offer help and advice. Just because i am not fully qualified does not mean that i do not have the skills or knowledge to understand accounting.

Unfortunately, that's irrelevant. To protect the public, most of the "chartered" accountancy bodies have a rule preventing their students (and members come to that) from practising without a practising certificate. The general "punishment" is to exclude you from membership - basically meaning that you've done the studying and exams for nothing.

I'd suggest you look at the rulebook of your professional body so that you can discover what they regard as "practising" and what their requirements are for granting of a "practising certificate" - they usually require you to have passed all the exams and have a few years of supervised working in a practice. Most allow you to do basic book-keeping & management accounts - to trial balance stage, and VAT & Payroll, but don't allow you to prepare annual/final accounts nor tax returns.

accountingbod

Thanks Pennywise

I do now feel a bit stupid and humbled but i'm glad that this has been pointed out to me.
I will give the rulebook a read this week to see where i stand.

My goal is to become an independent accountant one day with my own practice and i dont want to undermine that.