Accountants charges

hubb

I used a local lass who used to do my dads accounts about 7 years ago. She went through my self assessment with me and put my mind at rest on what I was doing right. She billed me £40 for this so £250-350 sounds extortionate.

kendall17

To do the full accounts, £250-£350 isn't extortionate, if anything, its very reasonable (3hours or so of a partner's time)

To do a quick assessment over what has been done, fill in the blanks you're probably looking at £75-100+vat.

chrismac1

The original task was to "submit my self assesment accounts" which I - along with 2 other accountants - took to be a self-assessment tax return, plus credible set of accounts which - other than support for the tax return - will be required by any finance or grant provider.

So we now have 4 quotes. 3 from accountants in the 250 to 350 range. one from "a local lass who used to do my dads accounts about 7 years ago" for 40 quid.

You pays your money and makes your choice.

booler

I am self employed and I have been using the same accountant for about seven years she started off charging me £150 and it is now £180. She saved me about £750 in the first year.

I present her with a detailed spreadsheet of income and expenditure for each month and for the yearly total. She checks this for me, corrects any errors and handles my tax payments with HMRC.

My "books" are very simple as what I do involves no stock and very little purchasing. It's mainly just billing people for my time and I am not VAT registered so it's probably easy for her and I am very happy with what she charges me.

Having said that, she probably spends no more that a couple of hours on it so she is doing OK. That is not a problem for me as it would take me much more than a couple of hours of stress and tearing what's left of my hair out. Well worth it!

booler

hubb wrote: »

I used a local lass who used to do my dads accounts about 7 years ago. She went through my self assessment with me and put my mind at rest on what I was doing right. She billed me £40 for this so £250-350 sounds extortionate.

But then she was probably not paying tax on this herself and you do not know how good a job she did. She may have been costing you money.

The other thing to consider is that if your dad's clients had used a "local lass" to provide whatever he does then he would not have any accounts.

hubb

booler wrote: »

But then she was probably not paying tax on this herself and you do not know how good a job she did. She may have been costing you money.

The other thing to consider is that if your dad's clients had used a "local lass" to provide whatever he does then he would not have any accounts.

Well I had a legit invoice from her and she is a company. £350 for a couple of hours work is robbery. Not worth it for me certainly.

booler

It really is not robbery, it's pretty much standard and it was I who mentioned a "couple of hours work" not the OP.

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/freelancers/750543-How-much-does-an-accountant-cost/AllOnOnePage
(Four years ago)

unmissable

Why don't you list all your questions, pay by the hour for advice, then do the donkey work yourself (ie actually filling in the return and collating the evidence)?

I did this and all my questions were answered in teh first 20 mins and since first half our was free, I paid nothing!!. (Very simple accounts).

I said I felt guilty obtaining professional advice for nothing, he said, I was perfectly capable of completing return without his help, but I would be back when the business got more complicated. He treated it as an investment.!!