Paystream for Ltd / PSC services

[northernladuk]

FWIW, I'm not recommending a possible accountant the poster hasn't already identified for themselves.

If Mr Maslin doesn't want to answer what appear to be perfectly reasonable, highly topical questions then I'm more than sure he's perfectly capable of making that clear.

Further I think it would be a dereliction of duty if a director of a company didn't seek to carry out some due diligence before appointing any professional services company to act for them. Whether it was an accountant or something else.

Personally, if I asked such a question of an accountant and they responded how you describe, I'd be appalled.

Yeah slight difference is you know what you know. What if it was some that really didn't care or make an effort. I guess money is money and helping one person is a long way from being an MSC provider so an accountant would never do that and I'm just over thinking it

[Maslins]

What about a company that use the Freeagent software that is mentioned here but still provide support/advice/reviews and assistance with things like VAT returns and Personal tax returns... e.g. someone like https://www.maslins.co.uk/ who appear to offer this service for £99 p/m and have excellent reviews.

Would you say this sort of service is less likely to be open to a MSCP investigation because they don't also have an Umbrella arm, or they are just as likely as someone like Paystream to be investigated in the future?

The MSC stuff admittedly has given us a bit of a scare. A little like IR35, it's so grey and woolly. Where's the line between acting like a normal accountant, and influencing a client's financial decisions. I'd argue those are the same thing!

Someone with more inside information than me did suggest it's use of bespoke portals that's a key thing in the current cases. No accountant controls FreeAgent. Yes we can tweak a couple of settings deciding what access you have, but you're able to overrule that if you want, and we can't stop you. Plus you're always free to leave us and take all your bookkeeping data and FreeAgent account with you. Compare that to a bespoke portal where the accountant has total control over what you can do and how, and you can't separate the accounting support from the bookkeeping tool.

So in practice, we'll be keeping an eye on how the current cases pan out, but are of the view we/our clients are safe. We're ensuring we stick to what we know (accounting support for Ltd Cos), and avoiding drifting towards being a "one stop shop" for contractors (selling umbrella services, insurance, tax investigations cover etc), pointing people to third parties if they want those.

As an aside, from 2023 our normal monthly fee for new clients will be increasing to £119+VAT/month. First price rise in almost a decade, but current economic climate makes it unavoidable.

[Skeet]

As an aside, from 2023 our normal monthly fee for new clients will be increasing to £119+VAT/month. First price rise in almost a decade, but current economic climate makes it unavoidable.

Is this price rise only for new clients? Will existing clients remain on the old rate?

[Maslins]

Is this price rise only for new clients? Will existing clients remain on the old rate?

At least for the time being, existing clients will remain on the "old" rate. If you are an existing client, you should have got an email re this last Friday.