Now that I have close to 1 year of contracting and have a reasonable understanding on the proceeds, I would like to ask you pros whether the following experience that I got from my accounting firm (highly and consistently recommended in these forums) is as expected or should I complain ?
1. They charge a set up fee + 2 months free accounting. I started the setup activities in July but started contracting only effective September. Everything done in July and August was set up activities which was paid for separately which means September and October should have been free. But I was billed from October and when queried was not addressed properly. There was so much going on as a newbie contractor that I had no time or energy to chase it up.
2. I was assigned an accountant without any explanation why he was chosen. I had not talked to him even once before. He was always helpful in answering my queries quickly but any discussion ended in a few seconds, the conversation never flowed. Then all of a sudden he was replaced with a new person without giving any reason.
3. Heeding to the advice from this forum, I had requested a Freeagent demo at the start. But I got a reply question "What do you want to know in it" As a newbie it made no sense at all initially and after getting no where with the demo request, I did my own reading and youtube videos.
4. Now to my biggest issue: I never got a holistic picture explanation of how all the cogs and wheels and levers of a LTD company accounting works together. Again after not getting anywhere with the explanations received, I sat down and created my own spreadie starting from the Day rate through VAT charged/payable, Expenses, Pensions, Corporation tax, profits for divident, share split scenarios, existing PAYE salary, NI thresold salary, Tax bands, PAYE tax, Dividend tax, Income tax all of which was done trial and error by reading this excellent forum, many other internet sites, talking to other contractors etc. I should have spent 100s of hours to reach to this stage where I can tweak numbers in my spreadie and be sure how the final tax owed will look like. So am I paying now just for reminders and admin ?
5. Excellently reactive in answering any queries but there has been no proactive advice on any tax planning except for vague suggestions to invest in pensions. I was expecting the accountant to ask some more queries on personal circumstances and challenging/suggesting ways to reduce tax liability (I am not talking about financial adviser investment advice or any schemes)
6. Share splits: In the previous tax year, the share split % was decided between me and the spouse but I had permie PAYE salary component from the first few months. Now this tax year, it is not there which means the share split received by my spouse is turning out to be a burden to avoid the higher rate dividend tax. The implications of the tax split % one year down the line was never explained properly as the calculation was predominantly concentrated only for the first tax year.
1. They charge a set up fee + 2 months free accounting. I started the setup activities in July but started contracting only effective September. Everything done in July and August was set up activities which was paid for separately which means September and October should have been free. But I was billed from October and when queried was not addressed properly. There was so much going on as a newbie contractor that I had no time or energy to chase it up.
2. I was assigned an accountant without any explanation why he was chosen. I had not talked to him even once before. He was always helpful in answering my queries quickly but any discussion ended in a few seconds, the conversation never flowed. Then all of a sudden he was replaced with a new person without giving any reason.
3. Heeding to the advice from this forum, I had requested a Freeagent demo at the start. But I got a reply question "What do you want to know in it" As a newbie it made no sense at all initially and after getting no where with the demo request, I did my own reading and youtube videos.
4. Now to my biggest issue: I never got a holistic picture explanation of how all the cogs and wheels and levers of a LTD company accounting works together. Again after not getting anywhere with the explanations received, I sat down and created my own spreadie starting from the Day rate through VAT charged/payable, Expenses, Pensions, Corporation tax, profits for divident, share split scenarios, existing PAYE salary, NI thresold salary, Tax bands, PAYE tax, Dividend tax, Income tax all of which was done trial and error by reading this excellent forum, many other internet sites, talking to other contractors etc. I should have spent 100s of hours to reach to this stage where I can tweak numbers in my spreadie and be sure how the final tax owed will look like. So am I paying now just for reminders and admin ?
5. Excellently reactive in answering any queries but there has been no proactive advice on any tax planning except for vague suggestions to invest in pensions. I was expecting the accountant to ask some more queries on personal circumstances and challenging/suggesting ways to reduce tax liability (I am not talking about financial adviser investment advice or any schemes)
6. Share splits: In the previous tax year, the share split % was decided between me and the spouse but I had permie PAYE salary component from the first few months. Now this tax year, it is not there which means the share split received by my spouse is turning out to be a burden to avoid the higher rate dividend tax. The implications of the tax split % one year down the line was never explained properly as the calculation was predominantly concentrated only for the first tax year.
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