AAT for Tax Return?

Bobby_Bouche

I am a sole trader and all my income pretty much goes in to one bank account.
There is no cash as everything i do is online.
Looking around for a new accountant and came across someone who is AAT accredited and Registered HMRC Tax Agent.
They specialist in sole traders.

Apart from price is there any real benefit of using a charted accountant vs someone who is AAT ?
Thanks in advance.

Pennywise

Are you sure they're even cheaper?  It's not a given that an AAT (or even unqualified) will always be cheaper than a chartered, especially when it comes to "one man band" chartered accountants.

There's a big difference in the examinations, training length, etc between the two.  The AAT could well be perfectly good enough for you, maybe totally adequate, no-one really knows as it depends on the amount of experience they have with clients similar to you.  It's a bit of a red flag that they "specialise in sole traders" because that's the simplest of business structures, so it's a bit of a worry that they don't have exposure/experience in other common types of small business structure.  It may well be that you'd benefit from being a partnership or limited company, but presumably they're not able to evaluate that and help you decide?

At the end of the day, it comes down to their experience, i.e. how long have they been doing it, the more years the better, and also how diverse has been their experience.  A "sole trader specialist" whose spent their working lives doing simple tax returns for builders and other building site subcontractors won't have much experience with clients who are hairdressers, garage mechanics or IT consultants!  

You need to have brief consultations and get quotes ideally from at least 3 accountants, encompassing different qualifications, different sizes, etc., and then go with whoever you feels is the most suitable, not just go for the cheapest!

Penguin_

AAT is usually the course you would do before your ACCA, so it is the basics & to be honest if they have done the 3 levels & are members of the AAT they should be more than able to carry out a tax return for a sole trader.

Bobby_Bouche

Thanks for the comments guys.
I trade mostly online and buy some stock and work from home. Not a big sole trader and not VAT reg.
In my mind I am thinking this person can do my returns as all my income and outgoings come from one bank account.  I could probably do my own tax returns but prefer someone else to do this .

corky23

My sister is studying for AAT (4 levels) and the personal and business tax papers cover sole traders and limited companies. It's actually quite difficult as I had a look at the tax mock exams (I'm ACA qualified) so it's definitely not a "basic qualification". I think you will be fine with your AAT person.

Penguin_

Bobby_Bouche said:

Thanks for the comments guys.
I trade mostly online and buy some stock and work from home. Not a big sole trader and not VAT reg.
In my mind I am thinking this person can do my returns as all my income and outgoings come from one bank account.  I could probably do my own tax returns but prefer someone else to do this .

If you have everything going from one account & it is all business related you should consider doing it yourself & save a few pounds. From memory you can declare all expenses as one figure rather than grouping them all up.