Best accountancy firms for LTD in 2023 - Contractor in tech - Outside IR35

[malvolio]

Sure thanks for the tips.
Also aware about the multiple capital distribution dates impacting the 2 years count down.
I think the accountant is wrong but maybe he sees a different risk.
And this thread is drifting away anyway. I understand why you are getting nervous with the non regular users.

There are essentially three groups on here, those who know what they're talking about, those who don't but offer barrack room lawyerly advise (usually wrong if not actually dangerous) and those who are trying to learn. The latter has sub-groups of those who do and those who don't. Try to keep in the right one.

[WTFH]

I think the accountant is wrong but maybe he sees a different risk.

Did you ask the accountant why he said what he did?

If someone disagrees with you or says something that you find challenging, it's always good to ask (with an open mind) why they are saying what they say.
It could be experience
It could be based on them not having the whole story (or having it, but being able to remove the emotive parts)
It could be that they interpret things in a different way, and maybe learning from them why they do that would help
It could be that they are providing the safest answer based on how much you are paying them for it.
It could be that you've asked a very narrow question that isn't really the one you should be asking.

That's also why sometimes posters on here will look at someone's post history to see if it gives any clues.

[philgo]

There are essentially three groups on here, those who know what they're talking about, those who don't but offer barrack room lawyerly advise (usually wrong if not actually dangerous) and those who are trying to learn. The latter has sub-groups of those who do and those who don't. Try to keep in the right one.

Agreed it can be annoying to get non sense questions from newbies all the time. Especially from those that are not trying to learn. How do you distinguish them from those who want to learn though ? By interpreting only what they wrote ? Is that a viable assessment ? Questionable IMO...

Then for some of those that consider they know, is the purpose of this forum to vomit knowledge and judge? Is it how a business operate with clueless client ? I doubt it...or not for long that's for sure if it's only money based...

I am assuming the appropriate way is to guide and share as much as possible and always being respectful as lot of people does here including yourself . It's not only about knowing, it's also about behaving !

[malvolio]

Agreed it can be annoying to get non sense questions from newbies all the time. Especially from those that are not trying to learn. How do you distinguish them from those who want to learn though ? By interpreting only what they wrote ? Is that a viable assessment ? Questionable IMO...

Then for some of those that consider they know, is the purpose of this forum to vomit knowledge and judge? Is it how a business operate with clueless client ? I doubt it...or not for long that's for sure if it's only money based...

I am assuming the appropriate way is to guide and share as much as possible and always being respectful as lot of people does here including yourself . It's not only about knowing, it's also about behaving !

Not really. It's about answering questions as well as we can given the information posted. Which is why your threads have got so long, a simple exposition of all the facts at the start would have saved a lot of everyone's time.

The old hands on here have many years' experience in contracting and have seen most of the questions many times over. Some of them have been active in challenging the more egregious examples of accountants, umbrella and HMRC perfidy and more than a few have the scars to prove it. We aren't doing ti to show off, merely to try to help others less experienced, ideally before they bugger it up completely.

We're also quite good at separating out newbies that genuinely don't know or don't understand - it is a difficult and very different world from permiedom after all - from those who CBA to de a little up front research. Guess which ones we tend to engage with...

And just to offer a couple of simple and quick answers to this whole thread, go through an umbrella for a while and use Clarity, or forget the whole offer and look for someone who knows their business properly to work through

[philgo]

Not really. It's about answering questions as well as we can given the information posted. Which is why your threads have got so long, a simple exposition of all the facts at the start would have saved a lot of everyone's time.

The old hands on here have many years' experience in contracting and have seen most of the questions many times over. Some of them have been active in challenging the more egregious examples of accountants, umbrella and HMRC perfidy and more than a few have the scars to prove it. We aren't doing ti to show off, merely to try to help others less experienced, ideally before they bugger it up completely.

We're also quite good at separating out newbies that genuinely don't know or don't understand - it is a difficult and very different world from permiedom after all - from those who CBA to de a little up front research. Guess which ones we tend to engage with...

And just to offer a couple of simple and quick answers to this whole thread, go through an umbrella for a while and use Clarity, or forget the whole offer and look for someone who knows their business properly to work through

Almost agreed on everything.
Even the fact that I should have got more details before posting as It would have helped everyone.
But I strongly disagree on tone sometimes used by certain person here and there are no excuses for that whatever happened in their past life. We all have luggage’s and being experts does not justify behaviour. It's just the difference between knowing and behaving.

On the rest I spoke with agent this morning and get more details. I will post in the other appropriate thread.

[philgo]

Did you ask the accountant why he said what he did?

If someone disagrees with you or says something that you find challenging, it's always good to ask (with an open mind) why they are saying what they say.
It could be experience
It could be based on them not having the whole story (or having it, but being able to remove the emotive parts)
It could be that they interpret things in a different way, and maybe learning from them why they do that would help
It could be that they are providing the safest answer based on how much you are paying them for it.
It could be that you've asked a very narrow question that isn't really the one you should be asking.

That's also why sometimes posters on here will look at someone's post history to see if it gives any clues.

Understand where you are coming from but again like before you are anticipating that I might not have challenged the accountant answer. Who did say I did not...

[WTFH]

Understand where you are coming from but again like before you are anticipating that I might not have challenged the accountant answer. Who did say I did not...

I'm just going by the words you shared with us:

I think the accountant is wrong but maybe he sees a different risk.

"Maybe he sees a different risk"
You're not sure if he sees a different risk, or you're not going to tell us what that risk is.

Back to what several of us have said before: we can only go on what you choose to tell us. You use the word "maybe" and that means you're unsure if or why he sees a risk.

[Lance]

According to their website they do offer FreeAgent. Maybe that's changed since you last looked?



I'm with Maslins, and I've been very happy with their service. My only problem is that they don't have Cyber Essentials (or similar) - that won't affect most contractors, but I need to specify requirements for my supply chain (so that MyCo can get IASME Cyber Assurance), so I think I'll need to move.



I was looking at Gorilla recently, since their website has the Cyber Essentials icon. However, when I checked the IASME website (certificate search), they aren't listed. I queried that with Gorilla, and they said that they're going through the renewal process, which was "due to be completed within the next 2-3 weeks". That was 4 weeks ago, and nothing's changed (i.e. they still have the icon without the certificate). Again, I think that this specific issue won't affect most contractors, but personally I think it's a bit iffy to claim something that you don't have, and it makes me wonder where else they might be stretching the truth.

My experience with the IASME certificate search is it's total tulip. Companies I know that have it don't come up, and when you widen the search it glibly tells you "Too many results returned
Your search would have returned 661 results. Please try a more targeted search"

[philgo]

I'm just going by the words you shared with us:



"Maybe he sees a different risk"
You're not sure if he sees a different risk, or you're not going to tell us what that risk is.

Back to what several of us have said before: we can only go on what you choose to tell us. You use the word "maybe" and that means you're unsure if or why he sees a risk.

Yes I said "maybe" so that's an assumption on my side so until I got anymore details from him no point talking more about this.

[hobnob]

My experience with the IASME certificate search is it's total tulip.

I haven't had that experience, but I'll take your word for it.

In this case, I queried it with Gorilla directly, and they confirmed that the certificate had lapsed. That suggests a few possibilities about why they left the logo on their website:
* They forgot that the logo was there. (Not applicable after I'd emailed them.)
* They don't know how to update the website.
* They think it would cost too much time/money to update the website (e.g. if they have to pay a 3rd party a fixed fee for each change).
* They're worried about losing business if they update the website, i.e. they actively want to deceive people.

It reminds me of something I've seen with job hunters. People send in their CV which says "CCNA certified" (or similar) and then when I ask about it they say "I've done the course but I haven't taken the exam yet" or "I did pass the exam but then it expired and I haven't renewed it". I think that someone can be a good candidate without having certification X, but lying about it is a red flag.