Accountants charging for furlough services

[jamed]

I understand it's extra time and effort on their part but was amazed at the amount my accountants were wanting to charge for putting me on furlough.

£100 plus vat for "setting it up" and then another £120 plus vat for monthly processing. The fact that most of us would only be getting around £600 a month and then losing £120 off that is staggering.

It literally took me about 10 minutes to do it myself for March and April.

Was just curious if others were being charged similar amounts or doing it themselves to save costs.

[adubya]

Crazy, mine (Contratax) did is as a BAU service.

[northernladuk]

I get the charge is on top but is the £120 a month their standard charges? Most accountants fees are yearly and just split up in to a monthly charge so might sound a lot while you are on furlough but it's all part of the yearly charge to do the full accounts when you need them doing. We can't say we want 11 months cheap because you don't do much and then pay full price for the month they do all the work?

Most accountants drop their fees when you aren't working and there is nothing to do but even been furloughed might be more work for them than if you were on the bench so continuing to pay full price doesn't sound all that unreasonable.

[jamed]

I get the charge is on top but is the £120 a month their standard charges? Most accountants fees are yearly and just split up in to a monthly charge so might sound a lot while you are on furlough but it's all part of the yearly charge to do the full accounts when you need them doing. We can't say we want 11 months cheap because you don't do much and then pay full price for the month they do all the work?

Most accountants drop their fees when you aren't working and there is nothing to do but even been furloughed might be more work for them than if you were on the bench so continuing to pay full price doesn't sound all that unreasonable.

Their monthly fee is £100 plus vat thus £1,200 plus vat for annual returns.

They are now charging an extra £100 plus vat to "set the furlough scheme up" as well as £120 plus vat for monthly processing of the furlough scheme.

Thus in the first month of furlough you could end up paying £100(normal monthly accounting fee) + £120(furlough set up scheme) + £100(furlough monthly claiming fee) = £320 plus vat.

This is at least my understanding from the email I received from them, considering I'm already an existing customer paying my monthly accounting fees of £100 plus vat.

[northernladuk]

I'd ring them and clarify first and then discuss any wiggle room with them before going off on one.

[Paralytic]

I'd ring them and clarify first and then discuss any wiggle room with them before going off on one.

But if they really wanted to charge £200+VAT/month, then definitely go off on one

I suspect you're double counting the £100/month and the furlough admin will be included in their standard £100/month fee.

[jamed]

But if they really wanted to charge £200+VAT/month, then definitely go off on one

I suspect you're double counting the £100/month and the furlough admin will be included in their standard £100/month fee.

How do you interpret this, considering I'm already a client of their's currently paying £100 + vat a month:

"We are sensitive to the current situation faced by businesses, however, if we do this for you we will need to charge a fee which is based on the amount of time we believe this process will take us, £100+VAT set up fee. This is completely optional.

There will also be a fee for the monthly processing as the claim goes on of £120+VAT."

[PerfectStorm]

Wow.. even Nixon Williams are doing this for free

[Paralytic]

How do you interpret this, considering I'm already a client of their's currently paying £100 + vat a month:

"We are sensitive to the current situation faced by businesses, however, if we do this for you we will need to charge a fee which is based on the amount of time we believe this process will take us, £100+VAT set up fee. This is completely optional.

There will also be a fee for the monthly processing as the claim goes on of £120+VAT."

Yes, I can now see how it reads. All I can say is: wow.

I'd certainly be pushing for them to do this within their existing £100/month fee. How can they justify charging £120/month to pay 80% of your salary when (presumably) they're already paying your salary for the existing £100/month charge.

[WTFH]

Who is your accountant?