Accountancy Costs for Contractors

**Pondlife** · 20 September 2006, 09:41

Smells like

**Ardesco** · 20 September 2006, 10:15

Originally posted by gravesendboy

I cannot see how fellow contractors can be charged near a £ 1000 pounds to do accounts that are so straightforward
One of my fellow contractors gets his refund from the Revenue for on line filing but the accountants keep a £ 100 of it .. why ?

Two problems here, the OP is assuming that everybody has straightforward accounts and he is classifying the refund from IR as a discount in his accounts fees.

My accounts (as i'm sure is the case with many other posters on this board) are not particulary straightforward. I have my Plan B and Plan C which also have to be sorted out and my accountant also provides tax advice, does my tax returns and checks through my contracts for me. I'm happy with the amount I pay him and I get the cheque from IR for the online filing tax rebate posted out to me when it comes through.

I have to agree that it does come accross as a feeble attempt to market the OP's company Pondlife

**oraclesmith** · 20 September 2006, 11:51

Of course it's spam. I use a reputable business accountancy firm and they charge £1k a year as well.

**gravesendboy** · 20 September 2006, 12:04

To the people who think this is spam , 'they seem to know their stuff and their charges are extremely reasonable 'is hardly a glowing reference
My understanding of extremely reasonable may be completely different to others but you miss the point of my post which is to query on what basis some companies charge £1000 '' what do they get for the £1000 ?

eg why does sjd charge 85 pounds a month and Quay accounting charge only 55..

I refer to them being straightforward accounts on the basis of what the majority of contractor earns in a year and for that tax planning does'nt come into it as we need to get out all the money from the company that we can!

**Ardesco** · 20 September 2006, 12:09

Originally posted by gravesendboy

eg why does sjd charge 85 pounds a month and Quay accounting charge only 55..

i think you will find that you are unlikely to get a static fixed fee in most cases. Some people have easy accounts some people have nightmare accounts and the amount you pay is normally determined by the amount of work the accountant has to do. The difference is cost above is probably because the accounts in question are offering different levels of service (best way to find out what that is is ask them).

Originally posted by gravesendboy

I refer to them being straightforward accounts on the basis of what the majority of contractor earns in a year and for that tax planning does'nt come into it as we need to get out all the money from the company that we can!

Again you are assuming that everybody has the same circumstances. I only take out what I need to take out, some people take out everything, some people take out none, everybody has slightly different circumstances and I would expect most contractors to have a Plan B in anticipation of rainy days.

**MarillionFan** · 20 September 2006, 12:10

I have just been given a quote by local accounts for £500 per year.

**gravesendboy** · 20 September 2006, 12:26

This is precisely my point ,, we seem to be charged different prices for I would assume the same sort of accounts
I can understand people who only take out money when they need it but this does'nt apply to the vast majority of us .. we only need to look at the higher tax threshold every year and know that if we restrict ourselves to this . wey won't pay any more additional tax( I refer to dividend income only)
Is this the additional type of service you refer to that accountants charge extra for ?

--
Why should one accountant charge a 1000 for this and another 500
I imagine having a fancy London address might have an increased cost but surely not to the tune of an additional 500
It would be useful if the accountancy companies who advertise on this site would give us an insight into this

**MarillionFan** · 20 September 2006, 12:55

I did take some different quotes recently. SJD was more expensive than two others I looked at, but his guys were more professional & efficient than the others. If I had just been contracting I would have used his services, but as my needs are more varied I have decided to go with a local one I can meet with.

**Ardesco** · 20 September 2006, 13:16

Originally posted by gravesendboy

This is precisely my point ,, we seem to be charged different prices for I would assume the same sort of accounts
I

This is the whole problem 2 people have posted saying £1000 and you are assuming that they have the same structure as you. Myself being one of the people who posted that I pay around the £1000 mark a year I know that my accounts are not simple and they do not just include my contracting money, hence why my bill may be higher than yours.

You don't know what oraclesmith does (who is the only other person who has posted a figure)

Your assumption that we all have the same sort of accounts is incorrect and probably why there are such large variations. Even with simple accounts you will have some people that do nothing all year and then throw it at the accountant, and some people that do everything and just get the accountant to check it, again a huge difference in cost.

Generall speaking you get what you pay for, the more work the accountant has to do on your accounts the more expensive it is and the more expertise the accountant has in your particular area of accounts the more expensive they are. It's like owning a car, I could get a roughly similar car from Audi/VW/BNW/Skoda but I can bet that the top of the range skoda will be substantially cheaper than the top of the range BMW.

Accountancy Costs for Contractors