Roughly how much should we pay for an accountant?

blizeH

Hi,

Between my fianc! and I we have numerous sources of income (I have a full time job, she has her own business, I do some freelance work, and then on top of that there’s income made from stocks, p2p lending, bitcoin and shortly property too) and would like to ensure everything is properly accounted for in our tax returns.

We’ve had an initial quote of around £1,500 which to me seems really steep... to be honest personally I’d be happier just to do it myself, but my fianc! is understandably keen on seeing an accountant just to make sure we’re on the right track.

Does this sound like a fair price?!

Thank you

chrismac1

Much depends on whether there are any limited companies in the mix and the nature of the businesses, plus whether you two are doing any of your own book-keeping or have staff or are VAT-registered.

I am happy to provide you with a quote for benchmarking, if you want to PM me I can call you for a chat. This is not an attempt to get your business, but at the end of the process you'll either:

1. Be confident you're getting value for money for the £1,500, or
2. Have ammunition to get the fee down.

Pennywise

Could be hugely expensive or could be a bargain.

You've got two separate businesses
Complicated with employment
Complicated with investments
Complicated with property
Complicated with capital gains?

So, potentially, three sets of accounts and at least two tax returns (maybe 3 if one of the businesses is a ltd co or partnership).

Accountant's time will also depend on how well you are at keeping your book-keeping records for the businesses and property (and what accounting software you're using), and how well you present your investment income to the accountant.

No one can possible say whether that fee is cheap or expensive without a lot more information and detail.

Prothet_of_Doom

Ltd company (VAT registered and PAYE employer registered) turning over less than £100K, one client, at a time, 48 invoices a year 2 employees, one director.

Accountant is provided with an excel spreadsheet, with details of all payments and dates in and out.
PAYE submission and Self assessment is done by me.
Output is LTD company submisson costing £450 plus VAT.

GlynD

The cost of an accountant depends on the amount of work needing done rather than the money involved. I find a price of £1,500 to be expensive and would suggest that you look for someone who'll do it for around half of that. A good tip would be to go to a smaller accountancy practice rather than the big shop fronted places.

agrinnall

Is the £1500 going to be charged every year, or is that their initial fee for working out where you are now (which could require them to go back several years) and then a lower fee once everything has settled down?

blizeH

Thank you all very much for the responses - I believe it's going to be close to £1,500 each year, but the figure is skewed since my girlfriend has mentioned investments that won't apply in the last tax year, nor did I do any freelance work (April 2013 to 2014 will be another matter though!)

One of the main issues I have with the accountant is that she's being quite insistent that we shouldn't worry about meeting up to discuss anything, and that we should just send across all of our financial info and statements and she will sort everything out, despite living only a few minutes away.

Personally, and this will sound sad, but I'm almost looking forward to filling out the tax return form myself, and my girlfriend's book keeping is impeccable and could no doubt be easily added onto her tax return also... as a result I'm struggling to see the justification in spending so much money.

To be honest I'd mostly just like to talk to someone. I'd happily pay someone for advice on our bookkeeping and investments, ie what our options are with the buy to let property we've just purchased:(

sunshinetours

Simple get a couple more quotes as you would with a builder.

Recomendations are best and is where most of our work comes from.

No one one here can say whether its expensive or not without knowing full details.

Also depends on whether you go to an Accountant or an "accountant". Be careful, unlike "Solicitor", "Accountant" is not a reserved term and can be used by anyone offering accounting services and does not indicate they are qualified, trained (initially and ongoing) or have suitable PI cover

Taxes1

Hi,

I am a retired Bank Manager who proceeded to tax/accountancy problems as a second career. Don't expect accountants, or solicitors for that matter to give too much in the way of advice on what to do in your business activities. That is NOT their job. They WILL give you advice on what NOT to do! By the very nature of their professions they have to take a negative stance as any incorrect positive advice they give can land them in big trouble.

I agree you need to meet with an accountant and give them the information you have set out in this forum. As a general rule, a local small-town accountant will charge between £40 - £60 per hour, but the larger firms will charge 3 or 4 times that. Yours is the sort of work I used to do (fully retired from all that now) and it was time consuming. Actually I was always on the lookout for serious tax problems which I could solve and asked my clients to pass on my name to anyone they knew had such a problem. Those I would charge on % of tax saved basis and this enabled me to keep charges low for ordinary clients. Your quote of £1500 would seem to infer 30 hours of work and, for just compiling accounts from tidy, competent records seems, rather heavy.

chrismac1

I can barely believe the last post to be honest. In my view any decent accountant will offer specific advice where needed. Examples from my own client base, but I could reel off hundreds:

1. In my area leasehold pubs are a nightmare. I have crunched the numbers on 17 and 17 have been non-viable. For those already in the pubs it's a matter of exit strategy, for the others it's negotiate your boots off and don't sign a long lease - ideally just don't sign.

2. Saved two clients over £10k a year in combined currency conversion costs by advising them to use a broker and not their bank.

3. Where I identify tax savings I do risk-sharing variations so it is "no saving no accountancy fee".

4. Often new start-ups do not understand what cost-effective marketing and business development is all about. Instead of a big expensive ad in the local paper, I often advise more targeted methods such as identifying your specific target market and putting a compelling offer in front of them. For example, a health and beauty parlour will in the main target women 30 to 60 years old, so get in touch with local coffee shops, yoga teachers and so on.

chrismac1

I meant to add that in view of all the issues you have raised, a proper meeting - or at the very least a long phone call in which things are properly resolved - is essential.