What sort of accountant/bookkeeper/etc. does this sort of simple work?

actualspoon

Hi

First question, apologies if I mess it up somehow!

My income tax situation is starting to look a bit messier.  It's not self-assessment but I think I could do with somebody (an accountant? a bookkeeper?) to look at my situation, answer a few questions I have and check how much money HMRC should owe me in higher-rate rebate in case I get that wrong.  Pretty simple for somebody who knows what they're doing.

I'm not sure what I should be looking for.  What do the sort of people who do that sort of work call themselves?  I imagine I would want the same sort of business that usually does people's self-assessments?  What can I do to avoid paying too much for this sort of advice (other than just asking questions here!)?

Note I'm NOT asking for somebody to recommend a specific accountant, I'm just asking for help to understand the market so I don't pay more than I need or go to the wrong sort of business.

Thank you

eskbanker

actualspoon said:

What can I do to avoid paying too much for this sort of advice (other than just asking questions here!)?

Why not just ask questions on here?  There's a wealth of expertise available from those with a good understanding of the tax system, so you may find that some well-phrased questions with a decent amount of detail about your current circumstances can avoid the need to spend money....

actualspoon

Thanks, I think this is a great resource and I'm sure I will make use of it.

Still, I don't always want to do that.  For example I could do with somebody checking my calculations and for various reasons I don't think I'm going to get into that level of detail here.

I reserve the right to be back here soon with questions about this same issue though!

So, I'm still interested in people's experience/suggestions about what sort of business might be best to get paid advice from for this king of thing.

eskbanker

https://taxaid.org.uk/guides/taxpayers/choosing-an-accountant-or-tax-adviser may be a place to start - I can't speak from experience of obtaining tax advice (other than packaged within limited company accountancy services) but have seen this company's offices in various parts of the UK:

https://www.taxassist.co.uk/our-services/self-assessment-tax-returns