Accountants Invoice

grubsters

Hi There.
This is my first post, so I hope I am posting in the right place.

My Hubby and I have been self employed for just one year now. In that time we have undertaken one project as a "partnership" and have since completed our second as a Ltd company.

We have just received our first bill from our chartered accountants and feel that it is more than a little steep for the small amount of work they have done.

The total invoice is for £1163 broken down as follows:
Preparation of Partnership accounts: £705.00 inc vat (which were supplied from us to them via a spreadsheet).
Ltd co Payroll work: £460 inc vat (detailed as below):

Payslips for 8 months (sent in one batch) - £170
"Advice" on payroll issues (one and three quarter hours) - £120
Set up for payroll - £120
Opening of a PAYE scheme - £51

This does not appear to include the anticipated £352 for the partnership preparation and 2 individual tax returns.

This seems like a hell of a lot of money for a very small amount of work. Am I wrong in thinking that (and perhaps just not used to accountants costs) or are we being ripped off here?

Any help/guideance/comments etc will be much appreciated.

sutwam

Hi

Just so you can compare, my OH has a charter accountant and he does the Partnership Accounts, Partnership Self Assessment, plus both my OH and his business partners personal Self Assessment tax returns all the above for £495 + vat.

The years accounts are very few invoices supplied on Sage to the accountant.

Perhaps its too late to change now if your accountant has prepared the accounts but you can pay him and shop round other chartered accountants and change.

Hope this is of some help

Riq

I am an accountant, still a trainee and my time is charged out at £102/hour by the company i work for.
Think you got it cheap looking at my time charges!! lol

tipsychick

That sounds okay to me for a chartered accountant to fill in all forms/sign off on everything. Not sure if location has anything to do with it - I'm in London.

Accountants' fees are tax deductible though, aren't they? At least that's what my accountant always says to sweeten the pill!

That HMRC/VAT investigation insurance (Qdos type policy) is too, I think.

Riq

Yes they are.

But I think any tax investigation work (say HMRC say you havent paid enough tax, but then you get your accountant to prove you have) is not tax deductable. Even, as in the example above, you win. It's a strange rule I know.

Most accountants would just bung it all together under some other heading so it's all tax deductable

Treading_Water

Hi
I don't think that you are being ripped off as chartered accountants rates are pretty high.
What they won't tell you is that you don't actually require a chartered accountant unless you are running a big corporation or your accounts need auditing.
Much of what you require can be done by a bookkeeper at £15-£20 per hour and the rest by a licensed (not chartered accountant) probably between £25 - £60 per hour depending on what they are required to do.
I should ask around and maybe talk to 2 or 3 accountants to get further advise.