Limited company newbie!

**northernladuk** · 9 March 2017, 17:47

For a start forget the agents recommendation. They'll be on a kickback or something. Go out to market and find your own. I've put a thread together recommending people that we use and know on the forums at the top of this forum. They are all Freeagent Accountants so you'll get FA thrown in which is an excellent tool.

You are surprised you tried to get something for free but there is a catch that will cost you? Really? lol Many of them are a yearly charge spread over months and not a monthly charge. The detail is in the contract so check each one.

Even as a qualified management accountant I think you'd be better with an accountant for a decent period. You've got to get your head around your new role as a contractor and not a permie without worrying about all this stuff. You should also be earning more than enough to not even blink at the fee levels the FA accountants charge.

There are very very few people on here that do it themselves and even some of our very knowledgeable accounting posters have an accountant behind them. On that basis alone I'd say get an accountant.

I mean, who can I tell you to ask when you end up running your company via an online forum?

Also as a new company don't forget Insurances, contract check, Tax cover and many other things. The accountants fees are just a drop in the ocean...

**lpop** · 9 March 2017, 18:38

Hi Northernlad,

Thank you very much for the reply, you've confirmed a lot of what I was thinking.

The agreement I was looking at with ClearSky included the insurances, do you mind me asking who you'd recommend in relation to insurance?

I've been told I need the following:

£1 million professional indemnity
£1 million public liability
Insurance's for employees if you have any

With regards employees I'm not sure whether I'll include my wife to take a salary and assist with admin, etc.

Finally, I can see from the thread you mentioned that you deal with Gorilla Accounting. I think I'll look into their services a bit more closely. I certainly think I need assistance and someone to ask questions of and their fee is much less than ClearSky.

**northernladyuk** · 9 March 2017, 19:04

Originally posted by lpop View Post

Hi Northernlad,

Thank you very much for the reply, you've confirmed a lot of what I was thinking.

The agreement I was looking at with ClearSky included the insurances, do you mind me asking who you'd recommend in relation to insurance?

I've been told I need the following:

£1 million professional indemnity
£1 million public liability
Insurance's for employees if you have any

With regards employees I'm not sure whether I'll include my wife to take a salary and assist with admin, etc.

Finally, I can see from the thread you mentioned that you deal with Gorilla Accounting. I think I'll look into their services a bit more closely. I certainly think I need assistance and someone to ask questions of and their fee is much less than ClearSky.

It pains me to say it but the old man is right. Get a specialist contractor accountant and see if you fancy doing it yourself after the first year.

**stek** · 9 March 2017, 19:10

All bets are off though if the gig is Public Sector....

**lpop** · 9 March 2017, 19:20

Not public sector!

**Michael at BI Accountancy** · 9 March 2017, 20:57

That's good news on the public sector front!

Like NorthernLad says get an accountant in place to handle your affairs and you concentrate on contracting.

I'd say a lot of our clients could potentially handle there own affairs, the reason they don't is for the cost of our service and the amount of time you would have to invest into not only preparing and submitting accounts but keeping up to date with legislative changes it's a no brainer.

Get an accountant, let them help guide you on all the queries you will have and after you've done a full year if you feel that you could do it yourself then give it a go.

**Andrew@Wisteria** · 10 March 2017, 07:46

Go for a modern accountant that uses cloud accounting (Freeagent) but more importantly find about what time they invest in saving you tax (which is really what you want to pay for). Many contractor accountants are sausage factories that will just process what you give them in FA with limited add-value/review process and just hand you your accounts. If that's the case then arguably you could do that yourself with the software available these days. Not necessarily easy to determine which type of accountant they are though. Some might be reflective in the price, but many are not!

**Andy Hallett** · 10 March 2017, 07:54

Worth pointing out that IR35 still applies outside of the public sector!

In a lot of ways the risk is higher. In the public sector all the liability is with the company that pays you, in the private sector it's your neck in the line.

Get a decent accountant and understand what they tell you.

**blacjac** · 10 March 2017, 13:39

Originally posted by lpop View Post

Hi Northernlad,

Thank you very much for the reply, you've confirmed a lot of what I was thinking.

The agreement I was looking at with ClearSky included the insurances, do you mind me asking who you'd recommend in relation to insurance?

I've been told I need the following:

£1 million professional indemnity
£1 million public liability
Insurance's for employees if you have any

With regards employees I'm not sure whether I'll include my wife to take a salary and assist with admin, etc.

Bring your wife on board as a director & shareholder. She can then be paid for any work she does and not be an employee. Plus its much more tax efficient to take dividends split between you and her (assuming she has no other income and your dividends would take you personally into the higher tax band).

However employees liability insurance tends to come as a freebie with most public liability policies - so it doesn't;t really matter :-)

Limited company newbie!