Is my Accountant charging too much?

dhp7

Hi, I hope someone can help.

My Accountant has just billed me £850 for doing my tax return. I Was working as freelance presenter for 10 months, and then went onto PAYE for the last two months of that financial year. I know someone else who used the same accountant, and gave all his receipts at the same time as me, but he was freelance for the whole year and he is getting charged £550?

My accountant had to do some more work on my tax return after the end of Jan 2007 because they thought I paid my agent her commission from the money I was paid every week, but I had actually already paid this before I had received the money. They were told this at the start, and therefore its their mistake. Surely I shouldn't have to pay for it?

Please help!

nealnomoney

what all did their professional fee entail?

Townley&Co

You have PM;)

Best Regards


L Townley
Townley & Co Accountancy Services

dunstonh

My accountant charges £558 a year and that is for business accounts as well as my personal situation.

I have to have full accounts for to meet FSA requirements. So, if you compare that to what you are paying and getting then you appear to be paying over the odds.

However, it should be noted that location can have a lot to do with fees. East Anglia tends to have lower charges in most things. Your accountant could have expensive offices in an expensive area. Plus you could be getting excellent service and options. Or you could be making it hard for the accountant in the way you supply information.

dhp7

nealnomoney wrote: »

what all did their professional fee entail?

Just claiming back expenses from that year, nothing to with VAT. The tax return ahs been done and sent away.

hopon

It may be that your accountant is charging what he can get away with. However giving him the benefit of the doubt it could just be that your return took a few more hours to complete either because of the volume of transactions, the level of records you kept, missing info etc plus the additional time to do the emloyment section of the return.

If you need a return doing for this year then I may be able to help and come to an agreeable fee beforehand.

dhp7

hopon wrote: »

It may be that your accountant is charging what he can get away with. However giving him the benefit of the doubt it could just be that your return took a few more hours to complete either because of the volume of transactions, the level of records you kept, missing info etc plus the additional time to do the emloyment section of the return.

If you need a return doing for this year then I may be able to help and come to an agreeable fee beforehand.

Im actually PAYE now, so dont need one for this year just finished, but thank you for offering and the advice.

bluep

Seems an awful lot - I'd ask your current accountant for a break down in fees.

They might

a) offer a discount as some firms do when clients query fees (and they happen to be upward charging i.e. what they can get away with

b) give you a breakdown which explains the higher charge i.e. time spent sorting out a more complicated tax issue for your first year with them

c) give you a breakdown which illustrates that although they didn't have to do much, their hourly rates are far higher than you though and all those little handholding calls/letters were actually adding valuable £s onto the bill!

nealnomoney

You took the words right out of my mouth jimmo!!!

martini99_2

I am a professional accountant with my own small practice in South Yorkshire. I am a sole practitioner working from home and therefore with relatively low overheads.

I sit down with my clients and ask them what they want me to do for them, then I give them a fixed price based on how much work I think is involved. If I get that judgement wrong then its tough luck on me. If, on the other hand, my client decides they need something extra, we sit down again and agree a fixed price for that job.

I find this approach helps each party to trust the other. It works for me and my clients know what they are getting and what they are paying for it.

EagerLearner

jimmo wrote: »

Townley&CO

Why do the majority of your contributions (3 out of 5) to this site involve PMs? If you have useful informationn to give, give it openly. Its only fair to warn you that I have sent a complaint about you to the site administrators. There is no real evidence but my impression is that you are touting for business. Other people who claim be be practising accountants give detailed replies. You don't
This is a copy of my complaint

At the time of typing this Townley&Co has posted 5 messages. 2 are are fairly innocuous giving information, which is fairly well known and obvious. Another 2 are "You have a PM." The other suggests that if the originator wants any further information they should send a PM to him.

Whilst Townley&Co has declared himself to be a professional accountant it appears to me that he is touting for business rather than making a genuine contribution

T&C has done that to me too via PM I said thanks but already have an accountant, was after some basic advice on here that's all x