Accountant Fees for closing down Limited company

[shasikkumar]

Hi,

Currently I am with an accountant paying 125£ + VAT for my regular services. But since I am moving to a permanent employment so I wanted to know the company close procedure and also about the charges involved - Even thou' I am not planning to initiate the close at least for another 3 months

Standard closing charges are £350+VAT plus any tax we save we charge 25% of tax savings

I am not sure what sort of tax savings he is talking about - But currently I do not have my wife as a director - So I could possibly add her as a director to take out some amount as Dividends for this tax year - Is there any charges involved generally charged by the account for this ?

Thanks
Shasi

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

There is very little work involved in closing a company, for someone who does it regularly and knows what they are doing, price sounds excessive.

Tasks:

~ prepare final accounts
~ submit the HMRC
~ final set of employers returns
~ final vat return
~ de register for vat/ PAYE
~ apply for strike off

Nb1 - make sure you close company bank account effort strike off ** very important **

NB 2 - tax savings. This arises from getting reserves out as capital gain rather than dividend. Used to be ESC C16, now
S1030a CTA or a members voluntary liquidation.

[northernladuk]

I know I keep saying this but I just don't get it. If you are paying an accountant for advice and they tell you something you are not quite sure about why not bloody ask them to explanation??? You are ultimately legally responsible for your accounts so if they suggest you do something that you don't quite understand it isn't unreasonable, in fact it should be your duty to ask the.. I just don't get it.

[Waldorf]

Hi,

Currently I am with an accountant paying 125£ + VAT for my regular services. But since I am moving to a permanent employment so I wanted to know the company close procedure and also about the charges involved - Even thou' I am not planning to initiate the close at least for another 3 months

Standard closing charges are £350+VAT plus any tax we save we charge 25% of tax savings

I am not sure what sort of tax savings he is talking about - But currently I do not have my wife as a director - So I could possibly add her as a director to take out some amount as Dividends for this tax year - Is there any charges involved generally charged by the account for this ?

Thanks
Shasi

Who is it that you are using?

They are a bit cheeky to charge 25% of the tax saving, the fee should just be a flat fee, £350+VAT is a bit steep in any case.

I would go back to them, depending on how much is involved it may be worth liquidating the company, in which case you do not have to use your accountant, you can go elsewhere.

[Maslins]

Agree that the % of tax saving thing is ridiculous...saving as compared to what?!

The £350+VAT...well, it's not extortionate (I'm assuming here your net assets will be sub £25k hence this won't be a formal liquidation). Also I'd suggest it might depend a little on how long you've been a client. If it's been a couple of years then I would've thought most accountants wouldn't charge anything. If on the other hand you started contracting last month, then are going permie this month, then you're getting off lightly IMHO.