Tax advisor costs for one off consultation

Skag

I approached an accountant for a one off consultation around tax optimization.

I was given a quote of £1,250 + vat for a written summary in bullet point format of the planning points, or if I want a full written report with all of the backing schedules and calculations the fee would be £1,750 + vat.

I find this quote very high (I thought it would cost me max £500). What do you think?

Also, can I haggle this price? (What's common practice?)

MattMattMattUK

It depends how complicated your finances are, if they are just PAYE income and pensions then it is very high, if you have a combination of income sources and/or you are self employed then it could be very low. 

Skag

MattMattMattUK said:

It depends how complicated your finances are, if they are just PAYE income and pensions then it is very high, if you have a combination of income sources and/or you are self employed then it could be very low. 

It's a combination of income sources: self-employed + property

diystarter7

Skag said:

MattMattMattUK said:

It depends how complicated your finances are, if they are just PAYE income and pensions then it is very high, if you have a combination of income sources and/or you are self employed then it could be very low. 

It's a combination of income sources: self-employed + property

Hi

I'm safely assuming that your assests are worth more than a million and if so, sounds reasonable

What are you hoping for, as poster may be able to guide you and then take it from there

Your choice.

Good luck either way

Jeremy535897

The value of the exercise to you is the amount of tax you save as a result of the consultation. If you save £2,000, there is no effective cost to you at all.

Remember that you are not simply paying for the time involved, but all the knowledge and training behind it, as the apocryphal Picasso story goes of the sketch he purportedly drew on a napkin and wanted $10,000 for. When the customer said it took only 30 minutes to draw, Picasso pointed out that it really took 40 years. The question is whether you are hiring a genuine Picasso or a pale imitation. 

Skag

diystarter7 said:

Skag said:

MattMattMattUK said:

It depends how complicated your finances are, if they are just PAYE income and pensions then it is very high, if you have a combination of income sources and/or you are self employed then it could be very low. 

It's a combination of income sources: self-employed + property

Hi

I'm safely assuming that your assests are worth more than a million and if so, sounds reasonable

What are you hoping for, as poster may be able to guide you and then take it from there

Your choice.

Good luck either way

I would like to see whether I am utilizing the full capability of tax optimization available, between me and my wife.

I am thinking along the lines of:

a) transferring partial (or all) of property income via a deed of trust

b) transferring the £1,260 of the tax allowance

Am I missing something, apart from a good combination of salary + dividends per company shareholder, assuming she is a shareholder and an employee in my company?

Also, is there any online calculator that can spit out numbers that change based on such input?

Jeremy535897

You said you are self employed and now you talk about limited companies. Which is it?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

b) transferring the £1,260 of the tax allowance

It would be very very unusual if you needed advice about whether that was a sensible thing to do or not.

For most couples there are two elements to consider,

1.  Are you both eligible

2.  Does one person applying (to have a lower Personal Allowance) mean you save money overall as a couple

Pennywise

Skag said:

I approached an accountant for a one off consultation around tax optimization.

I was given a quote of £1,250 + vat for a written summary in bullet point format of the planning points, or if I want a full written report with all of the backing schedules and calculations the fee would be £1,750 + vat.

I find this quote very high (I thought it would cost me max £500). What do you think?

Also, can I haggle this price? (What's common practice?)

Why don't you shop around and get a couple of other quotes from different types of firm, i.e. if that's from a one man band, get a quote from a town centre firm or if its from PWC get a quote from a local qualified one man band.  You WILL find someone a lot cheaper but you may also get a higher quote.  Different firms have different rates, different levels, qualifications, experience of staff, etc.   At the end of the day, though, what they have quoted for can take several hours of work doing the fact finding (ie looking at your accounts & tax returns), getting your and your wife's current income/gains status from you, all the due diligence, and then putting it all together and then looking at alternatives, options, etc.  As a one off, they're not going to discount in the same way as if you were going to be a 20 year client as they know they'll probably never see you again.  If you'd been using a firm for several years to do your accounts/tax, they'd already have the history and due diligence and the costs of such a review would be minimal, in fact, it's probably something we'd do on a smaller and simpler scale for a nominal charge for a long term client wanting a quick sanity check of how they were operating.