Accountant all year/end of year/ never?

[Diestl]

I have a ltd co and have read a few books on book keeping tax I was thinking I will just get an accountant end of year? I will do the low salary/dividend thing and flat rate vat so do I need an accountant at all?

[VectraMan]

Just recently I got the VAT return form through the post. Sent it to the accountant. They asked me for my VAT figures, I told them. They wrote the numbers on the form, and sent it back to me to sign. I sent it off.

Good to have the safety net, especially starting out, but I am starting to wonder...

[oraclesmith]

I also have a limited company and this is how I split the accountancy :-

- I have Sage Instant Accounts on the company desktop and use it to records all company income, expenditure, issue invoices etc. I use it to produce the VAT return (flat rate) figures, reports for company records etc. I use the HMRC site and other sources to do the day to day bookeeping. Most people can manage this - unless you're the sort that keep all your receipts in a carrier bag for the bookeeper to sort out once a month !!

- I retain a mid-size SME accountancy firm (Carlton Baker Clarke) to run my payroll and sort out my private pension. When I want to take a salary they do the calcs and just send me the paperwork and a form send with a cheque to the HMRC. Incidently, I pay myself more in salary than I actually need to, because it doesn't do to take the p*ss with the HMRC.

- The same accountancy firm deal with my end of year accounts including corporation tax return, company return and self assessment return.

Because I'm a regular client, I can get some advice throughout the year from the various departments of this mid-size firm, which is useful because they're dealling with the HMRC and similar client issues all the time and know the ropes. It's not a bad setup and it costs my company about £1k per year. In my humble opinion, I wouldn't go it alone unless you really know what you're doing.

[TheMonkey]

I manage everything myself using Sage Instant Accounts and PAYE via Excel duplicated onto a manual P11 form. P35 is a manual process.

Takes about an hour a month when you get the hang of it and doesn't take too much time up. You don't get a safety net and you have to know what you're doing though which takes practice (I've run Sage integration / HMRC / payroll for two companies before so I know the ropes)