Self Assessment - to Accountant or not Accountant?

John_Pierpoint

Let us pretend that your client works a 40 hour week 52 weeks a year, that works out at over £50 an hour - with earning potential like that he cannot afford to waste time doing a couple of self assessment tax returns with all the hassle involved, not to mention the need to keep up to date with the rule changes each year.

So he sensibly subcontracts the deal to an accountant, he cannot afford the opportunity cost of doing it himself.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Pennywise

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Let us pretend that your client works a 40 hour week 52 weeks a year, that works out at over £50 an hour - with earning potential like that he cannot afford to waste time doing a couple of self assessment tax returns with all the hassle involved, not to mention the need to keep up to date with the rule changes each year.

So he sensibly subcontracts the deal to an accountant, he cannot afford the opportunity cost of doing it himself.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

But more likely he'd do it outside his normal 40 hour working week, i.e. evenings or weekends. I can't really imagine him taking unpaid time off to do his tax return, so this point is irrelevant.

JaneyCakeLady

Excellent all!

I am leaning to going with the professional as my decision. I just don't know enough about it, and indeed I'm struggling having the time to research it fully. The fear of the brown bill envelope and potential for tears outweigh a pretty resonable fee of £150 + VAT.

I've kept my records, have everything detailed in a simple spreadsheet. Alongwith the other paperwork that I need to provide the Accountant, I trust they'll assist in keeping things above board whilst reducing my tax obligations (I'm no Jimmy Carr).

Appreciate all help. Thanks.
Jane

John_Pierpoint

Pennywise wrote: »

But more likely he'd do it outside his normal 40 hour working week, i.e. evenings or weekends. I can't really imagine him taking unpaid time off to do his tax return, so this point is irrelevant.

Not really the guy (?) is on a salary that many of us would find difficult to spend effectively. It may well be a highly stressed job too.
So it is perfectly rational to pay an accountant to do the job, life is too short. The opportunity cost is too high. Sometimes it is worth employing a specialist even if they cannot do a better job than you can do for your self.

I am just in the process of buying a replacement kettle. The on-line price at £30 is a whole fiver less than the Argos price but it is from a company I don't know and knowing my luck the postman will leave me a note that says "while you were out........" even when I wasn't and I would spend more than that £5 driving to sort out the hassle.
So I will be getting it from Argos.
Now if Tesco-Direct was still selling it for £25, I don't think I would be giving my business to Argos.

joolsybools

Blimey, seems my partner was ripped off with his accountant charging £500 plus vat then.

trailingspouse

Go with the accountant. If you needed an electrician for your property you wouldn't dream of saying 'I'll just Google the details, can't see any reason why I shouldn't do it myself'. Specialists are specialists for a reason. Let them do the work, you get the benefit of any savings that may be available, plus the (not inconsiderable) advantage of knowing it's been done right, so you can sleep at night. We pay ours £1800 + VAT a year, and it's worth every tax deductible penny.

masscrazy

I'm sticking with an accountant myself. HMRC are terrible to deal with so i leave it all to him. If your financial situation is straightforward then save the money and do it your self.

Pennywise

DavidSpeel wrote: »

might be worth getting an accountant to do one year, and if they come up with any great tax saving ideas, then you know about them for next year when you go alone

Copying from previous years is no good when tax law/rules change or where circumstances change (i.e. you spend money on something different from the prior year).

Just a couple of relatively recent changes that a "copy last year" person would potentially lose out massively are HMRC's change in policy about replacement with modern day equivalent (such as double glazed window replacements) and regarding mortgages & loans where the money borrowed isn't used for the purchase of the property.

HMRC aren't going to personally tell you when something changes, but that's exactly what a good accountant will do.

John_Pierpoint

trailingspouse wrote: »

Go with the accountant. If you needed an electrician for your property you wouldn't dream of saying 'I'll just Google the details, can't see any reason why I shouldn't do it myself'. Specialists are specialists for a reason. Let them do the work, you get the benefit of any savings that may be available, plus the (not inconsiderable) advantage of knowing it's been done right, so you can sleep at night. We pay ours £1800 + VAT a year, and it's worth every tax deductible penny.

The only time I have had an electrician in my place, I ended up with a forest of certificates but still had a meter cupboard full of smoke.

To pays your money and you take your chances.

PS I was in luck and got the kettle as a special offer for £29

Pennywise

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

The only time I have had an electrician in my place, I ended up with a forest of certificates but still had a meter cupboard full of smoke.

To pays your money and you take your chances.

PS I was in luck and got the kettle as a special offer for £29

If you do your own electrics, I hope you follow the guidelines and standards. It may work for you, but pity the poor sods who buy your house if you've not followed them.

I bought my house from a keen DIYer and everything looked fine superficially, but we soon discovered that he'd botched putting in security lights, extra sockets and lighting. He'd completely messed up the circuits so that some sockets in the same room were on the upstairs socket circuit and some were on the downstairs socket circuit - then there were some sockets which he'd wired in to a lighting circuit, no isolators for the bathroom shower, nor wall heater nor even the cooker! Every time we had to do anything, we had to shut down power to the whole house because we couldn't risk what he'd done. Eventually, we had to bite the bullet and have the whole house rewired professionally because we started getting fuses constantly blowing for no obvious reason.

The same idiot had added extra radiators to the central heating system and likewise, nothing but problems as he's altered the natural flow of the water around the house and now it's impossible to have all radiators working - we can literally shut one down in the front room upstairs and it makes one downstairs in the back room work!

I have no problem with people doing things themselves but only if they research properly and do the job properly, and are willing to accept that they don't know what they don't know. Sadly, too many people just bodge it and hope for the best.