Advice on Closing my Ltd Company without incurring excessive Accountancy Fees

[Willy Win]

In the current situation I have recently taken a permanent job and have enquired with my Accountants, Clearsky, the fees for dissolving the company. There are no debts, no assets, it has not been trading for 6 months, corporation tax is all paid up and just a deferred balance of £65 in VAT remains to pay. My P45 was issued in June. Total dividends payable is just £4,300. Monthly accountancy fees were reduced to £60 a month for use of registered office address and VAT returns submissions.

My accountant has quoted me £750+VAT for them to fulfill all administration duties to process the closure which seems very high,
and has stated that after 6 months has lapsed that Companies House will then action and confirm the closure. I am not sure during this time whether they still expect a monthly fee of £60 as I was still reeling from being informed of the closure fee which is a big chunk of my dividends.

My question is, has anyone else had experience of closing their company and how did your fees compare? Is there a cheaper way to do this and, having always used an accountant, are the steps complicated? Is it worth stopping using this accountant and using another just for the closure if the fees could be less? I am not sure whether I will contract again given the future IR35 situation but if a really good gig came up I wouldn't completely rule it out.

[eek]

In the current situation I have recently taken a permanent job and have enquired with my Accountants, Clearsky, the fees for dissolving the company. There are no debts, no assets, it has not been trading for 6 months, corporation tax is all paid up and just a deferred balance of £65 in VAT remains to pay. My P45 was issued in June. Total dividends payable is just £4,300. Monthly accountancy fees were reduced to £60 a month for use of registered office address and VAT returns submissions.

My accountant has quoted me £750+VAT for them to fulfill all administration duties to process the closure which seems very high,
and has stated that after 6 months has lapsed that Companies House will then action and confirm the closure. I am not sure during this time whether they still expect a monthly fee of £60 as I was still reeling from being informed of the closure fee which is a big chunk of my dividends.

My question is, has anyone else had experience of closing their company and how did your fees compare? Is there a cheaper way to do this and, having always used an accountant, are the steps complicated? Is it worth stopping using this accountant and using another just for the closure if the fees could be less? I am not sure whether I will contract again given the future IR35 situation but if a really good gig came up I wouldn't completely rule it out.

Dissolving a Company - Company Debt may help.

Firstly you need to pay all debts, extract the cash as a dividend and get and submit a final set of accounts. Then you can follow the rest of the process there.

As your accountant will need to submit those accounts (that's really what you pay their annual fee for them to do) £750 to do that and the rest of the items required doesn't seem that bad considering you were probably paying £1000+ + VAT a year for them to do that task before and there is additional work required.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I am in the same (well a similar) boat. Accountants want a total of £930 + VAT to cover their "lost" fees and the admin to close the company. I guess they are all trying to recoup the costs of us all closing out Ltds and retiring/emigrating/going permie.

[cojak]

I am in the same (well a similar) boat. Accountants want a total of £930 + VAT to cover their "lost" fees and the admin to close the company. I guess they are all trying to recoup the costs of us all closing out Ltds and retiring/emigrating/going permie.

Mine cost £800, but since they were rubbish I took the hit to get rid of them.

[Willy Win]

As your accountant will need to submit those accounts (that's really what you pay their annual fee for them to do) £750 to do that and the rest of the items required doesn't seem that bad considering you were probably paying £1000+ + VAT a year for them to do that task before and there is additional work required.

The £60 per month was their reduced fee whilst not trading. Previously it was £200. They have said that the current £60 per month does not cover the fee for closure so my assumption at the moment is that whilst they would be processing the closure I will still be charged that per month plus the £900. If it takes as long as they say it does i.e 6 months that's £1,260 in total.

[Fred Bloggs]

I am in the same (well a similar) boat. Accountants want a total of £930 + VAT to cover their "lost" fees and the admin to close the company. I guess they are all trying to recoup the costs of us all closing out Ltds and retiring/emigrating/going permie.

Seems likely. I closed two companies via the incumbent accountants. (Last one was 2016). They charged me nothing to wind up the companies and stopped monthly charges the day I asked them to close the companies down. I guess with the bread and butter dropping off the edge of the table, accountants are now much keener to generate what revenue they can from a dying business model.

[northernladuk]

Pay them to do it properly and never worry about it again. It's just to cheap to be messing around with IMO.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Pay them to do it properly and never worry about it again. It's just to cheap to be messing around with IMO.

I wouldn't mind if I thought I could actually trust them to do it properly.

[pegzyisdeed]

750 seems cheap compared to what Im being advised by SJD.

I'm looking to apply for entrepreneurs relief as part of closing the company down. But they want something like £2000 to carry this out. Considering I've not traded this financial year. Surely I'd be best to get a quote from someone else?

Does anyone have any recommendations of a trust worthy firm who would perform this for a more reasonable fee?

[Maslins]

750 seems cheap compared to what Im being advised by SJD.

I'm looking to apply for entrepreneurs relief as part of closing the company down. But they want something like £2000 to carry this out. Considering I've not traded this financial year. Surely I'd be best to get a quote from someone else?

Does anyone have any recommendations of a trust worthy firm who would perform this for a more reasonable fee?

Is the £2k for a formal members voluntary liquidation (MVL)? Be aware that's different, and is over and above what I think the OP is talking about in this thread, which is just the accounting/tax tidy up exercises.