Incompetency

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

Is it not just a case of breakdown in communications? Some accountants have trouble with this!

[moorfield]

My tuppenny rant for the day ...

A few accountants on here claim they will do it all for you. Personally I think to believe this is naive - you should have a basic grasp of bookkeeping, paye/vat/ni calculations plus the concept of your directors loan account and you should periodically check what your own accountants are doing.

Some examples from my own experience which brought me round to this view.
- Directors loan a/c was incorrectly overdrawn on my year end accounts
- P11D totals were incorrect
- Incorrect divi calculations - various invoices/expenses had obviously been missed/misread by the accountants when inputting on their own systems

I would not have spotted these without checking against my own records!

I also recently raised the P35 Question 6 poll on here, partly because my accountants are filing this for me and I had no idea what they were going to put down, and they have not (yet) come forward to advise me this is something I might want to discuss with them!

[ruth11]

That's the sort of good advice that I believe I should be getting from my accountant. Thanks very much.

It's time for a salary / dividend split rejig and an accountant sacking.

Just for the record, my previous post does not advise that as the best way to go, it just states that it's the most tax efficient way. There is a whole other debate over whether you should pay the minimum in salary (£5250), or minimum wage (have been advised that this is £11k this year), or a "sensible salary as a permie would get for the job I do" in order to minimise the risk of being investigated that I don't want to get into here! That's probably a discussion you should have with your accountant.

Disclaimer: IANAA

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

I agree with Moorfield. You should have a grasp of book-keeping and have a broad understanding of PAYE / VAT etc and not blindly follow what is said.

However, if you have selected your accountant properly, then you should have the confidence in his/her advice to act accordingly. And there is always CUK if you need a second opinion.

[ratewhore]

And there is always CUK if you need a second opinion.

True. Although you'll get loads of different ones...