Online filing - IR incentives

[Darren at 1st Accountancy Serv Ltd]

PAYE

Not worth the bother then!!

[4Contractors]

Re: PAYE

I am embarrassed to admit that our accountant is proposing to charge £100 + VAT for the service of doing the P35 & P14 online.

This is the first time we have been dissatisfied with any aspect of their service and we will not personally be using them for this servce.

Over the next couple of weeks we will put a comprehensive guide together on our ************ website explaining how to do the online returns yourself for anybody that is interested.

As far as we are concerned this online filing requires no extra effort from the accountant and no fee should be payable.

[Robot]

Oh Dear

(This message was left blank)

[Darren at 1st Accountancy Serv Ltd]

PAYE

If ours reply that they will be charging you may be getting a couple of new customers

.....so we're the only ones not charging for this!

[Rhino]

Re: also not charging

:rollin

[WellwoodHoyle]

Included in our monthly fee for contractors

We currently have no plans to charge anything beyond the normal monthly fee for our clients. But, neither have we made any guarantees that we will file by internet.

We made a decision over a year ago, based on the potential extra time we would spend on registration, the potential time/cost savings per year, and the potential client unhappiness at making an extra charge. We didn't want to risk losing any client because of a nominal charge to everyone.

But, to be fair to the ones who are charging, it is not strictly true to say that the accountant is getting money for nothing. All he is saving is the ink on a couple of P14s and a stamp to send them to the IR. However, he has the time spent registering the client with the IR and getting forms signed by the client - to date, our time and admin costs on registrations is averaging £70 per client due to IR @#%$-ups, papers lost in the post etc. Compare this to the client who really does stand to make "money for nothing". All our clients have had to do is sign a form! Perhaps other accountants are expecting their clients to register themselves - I don't know.

That said, we are planning to wait and see what happens in April/May. If our software and the IR website works OK and we can file relatively painlessly, then we will do so without extra charge. However, if it doesn't work well, and it looks like we'll have to spend a lot of time in "re-keying" or with system failures etc., then we'll probably give the client the option of paying for the excessive time, or posting the forms instead.

We certainly plan to "guarantee" to file by internet for the future without extra charge, once we are satisfied the system works ok.

[Rhino]

Re: PAYE

.....so we're the only ones not charging for this!

...so far we are aware of 2 accountants who propose to charge and one that isn't. I would be interested in hearing from others on this issue.

I signed up for this PAYE online last night and apart from the usual illogical process of weaving through Revenue forms, the process is incredibly easy. On the face of it any accountant charging for this service is being underhand and greedy !! - greedy for obvious reasons and underhand because I would suggest their low-life stratagy would be to only inform the bulk of their clients at a date very close to the May 19th deadline for these returns. Our website will shortly be able to guide you through this process in easy steps so you will be prepared.

Darren - I notice your accounting system involves clients maintaining their own records. From my experience at JSA this involves a lot more time spent and a lot more responsibility. However bad our accountants judgement on this particular issue is, I still spend a maximum of 6 hours a year dealing with my accounts - they do all the work. Self administered accounting systems lull one into a false sense of security but you end up spending lots of time doing all the work and take all the responsibility without anything being double checked. If you had a similar accounting system to our current accountant we would have been tempted to deal with you a long time ago.

Sorry to hit into you a bit Darren. This is not personal but whilst we are clearing the air and being honest, the board needs to be wiped clean (excuse pun)

[Buckstewerbuck]

also not charging

You probably wont be surprised to hear that K&B won't be charging!

included in the monthly fee of £45 inl VAT.

[Simon SJDaccountancy]

Re: Included in our monthly fee for contractors

Rhino,

Quote

"On the face of it any accountant charging for this service is being underhand and greedy !! - greedy for obvious reasons and underhand because I would suggest their low-life stratagy would be to only inform the bulk of their clients at a date very close to the May 19th deadline for these returns."

Try to find out the facts before you make defamatory remarks.

I don't intend discussing this here to any great length, but just to make things clear, all our clients were informed of the proposal to charge in October last year, and all of them were given the option of us doing it, them filing online themselves, or us sending the paper copies as usual.

[Rhino]

Re: Included in our monthly fee for contractors

I signed up for PAYE online last night and client registration takes about two minutes, if you have the relevant information to hand and navigate the Revenue site correctly.

The accountant merely has to register themselves once and pass on the agency number they subsequently get to each client. There is no extra time involved and the fact that forms no longer need producing and posting out should indeed save time. Even if the accountant makes the benevolent gesture of registering the client and inputting client details, we are talking a maximum of 5 minutes work - I did all this last night !!

The process is even simpler than I thought as the online software operates from the revenue site and retains all input information. There is no need to download anything - a userid and password are entered to signon and forms can be filled out and submitted directly.

I can only assume that certain accountants consider that they deserve their cut of this wasteful and stupid handout by the government

I am editing my post because I have just noticed the previous post from Simon Dolan from SJD. In the light of this post Simon perhaps you could explain the justification for your charge of £125.00 + VAT. I don't believe that I have been defamatory but here is an opportunity for you to correctly address this issue.....good luck !!