Using Online Accountancy firms to do tax return

rmd_2

I have been trawling the web to find a reasonable accountant who will be on my side rather than HMRC's side. I have found one or two who will do the accounts and returns etc for £150 - can't remember who though. Do any of you have any experience of using these? If so, yes or no?

It would be good to find out a little more.

Pennywise

Most of the on-line firms rely on you giving them the right information, or keying in the right information onto their system. They tend to be "compliance" only, i.e. you give them the information and they put the figures in the boxes on the tax return. As far as I know, advice etc is limited if at all. If you have all the right information anyway, there's nothing to stop you entering the information directly into the tax return via HMRC's own website. For £150, you aren't going to get cutting edge tax advice - if that's what you want, you'll be disappointed.

How do you know that the accountant will be on your side, not HMRC's side, if you never meet them and only deal via internet? Surely actually meeting a few accountants will give you a better idea. By the way, all accountants work under the same legal limitations, so will have to comply with the law - no reputable firm will be party to submitting anything with dodgy information. Most accountants will act as a "screening", to make sure that what you declare and claim would stand scrutiny in case of enquiry.

chappers

Absolutely as Pennywise said, If your books are so simple that they can be completed by someone online then I wouldn't have thought a local accountant would cost a lot more.In my early days of sole trading i used to sit with my accountant for about an hour I would tell him how much I had earned and how much tax I had already paid through my CIS, he would then add up my shoe box full of reciepts do afew bits of jiggery pokery with the calculator fill in my tax return , and sned it off, charging me £200 I would either pay him there and then or if I had a refund he would deduct his fee(allowable against tax)from my refund and send me the rest, when it arrived.

Also be very wary of using anyone who gaurantees to get you a tax refund, anyone can do this by putting anything on your tax return, HMRC will take you at your word and send you arefund .However when they investigate you,it will all come to light and you will owe the tax you should have paid, meanwhile the company will have shut down and re-opened under another name leaving you high and dry.