Changing your Accountant.

Daveinlincoln

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice as to what to do regarding my accountant as to whether or not I should cut my losses and go elsewhere?

So, I'm self employed and I incorporated on his advice in November 2017, before that I was just straight forward self employed.

I sit just under the VAT threshold and when I started using this accountant I was told by others he was good at his job as he was an ex HMRC inspector so I assumed he'd be well placed to look after my accounts.

He started ok and in the first year he decent but them he started to go down hill....unreturned phone calls, ignored emails...I seemed to know more about my accounts that he did and his charges went up. He's a prickly character too and I feel that i'm treading on eggshells around him.

The final straw has come 2 weeks ago when I called him to ask when my next tax payment would be due....he seemed have no idea but said he'd ring me back to let me know...2 weeks later there's been no phone call and after sending an email today there's still been no reply and I'm worried that I've missed a deadline to pay tax as I incorporated in Nov 2017 and am yet to pay any tax.

So I'm thinking of shifting to another firm as I'm fed up, but I'm worried this chap will be obstructive and I could end up making a difficult situation worse.

How easy is it to change your accountant?...is it a real hassle and can the old accountant make this difficult for me?

Any advice would be really appreciated

unholyangel

Changing agent authority is easy.

Whether your contract with the accountant allows you to do so without still being liable to pay him is another matter. What was agreed and was anything in writing?

Why hes changed could be a myriad of reasons. Small in beginning and now bitten more than he can chew, more profitable clients now, mental health issues etc. Perhaps speak to him first but imo if he doesn't seem that interested in your business then you shouldn't feel guilty for losing interest in his

Daveinlincoln

Thanks #1 ,I paid in January upfront for a year for his services so I don't think ill owe him anything.
I just think the dude has bigger clients,he's eying up retirement and he's involved in another family business so that could explain what's been going on ,plus he's always on holiday!

Pennywise

If he's qualified/regulated, he will have to follow his professional body's rules about handing over information to your new accountant. Your new accountant would send him the usual "clearance" letter asking for prior years' accounts/returns etc., and he should provide them within a reasonable timescale. Then your new firm would be good to go. I've done it within a week for some new clients.

Unfortunately, if your "accountant" isn't qualified/regulated by a professional body, they can delay/obstruct/ignore your new accountant and then it's up to the new accountant to try to reconstruct what's gone on, get copies of returns from HMRC, etc which can take a lot of time!

Any decent accountant knows how the process works and what to do if the previous accountant isn't co-operative. So, you need to go out and find a new accountant, explain the situation, and see how they'd approach it. A good start would be looking at the online directories of the main qualified/regulated accountancy bodies, ACCA and ICAEW (there are also others such as CIMA, AAT and CTA which aren't quite as relevant for your needs, but some firms will be able to do it).