Accountancy costs (rough estimate) for CGT computation residential property.

m1ntie

I have decided I need to get an accountant to do the  CGT computation for the gain on my property which I recently sold  (October 2019)  
I have no idea of what would be an average price for this. I would be grateful if someone could give me a rough estimate.
I owned the house for 16 years and lived in it for about 10 years with lodgers for some of the time. The last 5 years it was let under an AST.
Thanks

Pennywise

Accountancy charges, like all other service providers, varies enormously.  From what you say, it sounds simple enough, so a small chartered/certified practice should be able to do it pretty easily - maybe £250-£500 or so would be a good ball park.
No doubt you could get an unqualified/unregulated/uninsured person to do it a lot cheaper than that from a web platform such as "people per hour" or similar.
Conversely, a big firm, or specialist firm would probably charge closer to £1,000.

silvercar

This is a money saving site, you could probably find people on here doing it for free, if you were happy to post sufficient details. That would leave you to submit the return yourself and of course there would be no liability if people got it wrong.

m1ntie

" This is a money saving site, you could probably find people on here doing it for free, if you were happy to post sufficient details. That would leave you to submit the return yourself and of course there would be no liability if people got it wrong ".
That would be good but probably too big an ask!

inspectorperez

https://www.rossmartin.co.uk/private-client-a-estate-planning/capital-gains-tax/3350-reporting-capital-gains

Here is a flow chart which you may find helpful in how and when to report capital gains. I am not in anyway connected to the firm by the way who have published this on the internet.

As previous posters have stated, the costs could vary tremendously depending on who you appointed to undertake this work for you. This may be a one off assignment so far as they are concerned and it is unlikely (?) that they will get recurring work from you. Yet, they will still have to give you the "full treatment" in terms of taking you on board as a client, checking out your ID, and carrying out the necessary Money Laundering checks. This is before they have even started to take any instructions and information from you.

This kind of preliminary work is required whether the accountant is a Big 4 firm, or a small practice not regulated by a professional body.

From the brief information you refer to in your opening post, I would consider purchasing online tax return software and do it yourself. I use a product called Taxcalc for my own self assessment return at a cost of circa £32. There are plenty of other products available also in a similar price range.

This particular software is very intuitive and there are help links every step of the way. So for instance with capital gains reporting, you are guided through a series of questions and when you come to the section about available reliefs, you could click on a link which would take you to HMRC help sheet (283 from memory) which will explain what is required and provide examples.

Whatever you do, do not leave your decision until the last minute. Accountants taking this sort of work on "at the last minute" will almost certainly charge a premium, as for one thing, they will have an increased risk of not filing your tax return on time with the resultant extra costs on you in terms of penalties and interest.

Hope my comments are of some help

silvercar

m1ntie said:

" This is a money saving site, you could probably find people on here doing it for free, if you were happy to post sufficient details. That would leave you to submit the return yourself and of course there would be no liability if people got it wrong ".
That would be good but probably too big an ask!

Search "capital gains" and "CGT" on this board and you will find some quite detailed calculations you could use. Carefull check the date of posting as rules do change.

m1ntie

Thanks everyone for the info and advice,