Reply to: Making Partner a Director and Shareholder

[craigy1874]

Depends on the total picture. Accountants have to make their money one way or another.

My accountant gives me a great annual rate. My business is more complex than most of you guys, and I pay £1K a year. That's less than most of you, from what I read here. It includes annual accounts and tax advice. It includes no freebies. If I want him to do my self-assessment, I pay for it. If I want to change shareholding, I pay for it. He does pretty well for himself on those extras. He does pretty well for me on the annual fee.

He charges £200 to handle a change in shareholding. That seems high to me. I could probably figure it out and probably get it right a lot cheaper than that. But if I change shareholding once this year, I end up paying £100 / month. Seems like I'm doing ok.

The main thing is he gets my accounts right, when I scrutinize them and challenge them he doesn't complain and answers my questions and when I check his answers, they are always right. A few quid here and there don't matter much, and I don't care if he makes his money by charging a low fee and charging for extras or a high fee and throwing in the extras for free. However he does it, I do want him to make enough that he stays in business and can continue to provide the good service he's been providing me.

I have to say, you are the perfect client! Your accountant is a lucky guy!

[WordIsBond]

Depends on the total picture. Accountants have to make their money one way or another.

My accountant gives me a great annual rate. My business is more complex than most of you guys, and I pay £1K a year. That's less than most of you, from what I read here. It includes annual accounts and tax advice. It includes no freebies. If I want him to do my self-assessment, I pay for it. If I want to change shareholding, I pay for it. He does pretty well for himself on those extras. He does pretty well for me on the annual fee.

He charges £200 to handle a change in shareholding. That seems high to me. I could probably figure it out and probably get it right a lot cheaper than that. But if I change shareholding once this year, I end up paying £100 / month. Seems like I'm doing ok.

The main thing is he gets my accounts right, when I scrutinize them and challenge them he doesn't complain and answers my questions and when I check his answers, they are always right. A few quid here and there don't matter much, and I don't care if he makes his money by charging a low fee and charging for extras or a high fee and throwing in the extras for free. However he does it, I do want him to make enough that he stays in business and can continue to provide the good service he's been providing me.

[Lance]

My accountant did my wife (ooh err) for free.
they do want £125 to do her SA though (I do that myself)

You need a new accountant.

[Scruff]

Adding a director takes 5 minutes.

Adding a shareholder takes about the same amount of time. £500 tells me its time to find another accountant.

I'll do it for a Monkey

[eek]

Adding a director takes 5 minutes.

Adding a shareholder takes about the same amount of time. £500 tells me its time to find another accountant.

[northernladuk]

It's not how much an individual earns, but how much their company charges.

If you think £250/hr is a lot, you've never paid for solicitors to sue an agency.

I've paid a solicitor to sue another solicitor though. What an effing nightmare it was and the amount of money both made was almost criminal in itself..

[pr1]

It's not how much an individual earns, but how much their company charges.

If you think £250/hr is a lot, you've never paid for solicitors to sue an agency.

I think it's a lot for filling in a couple of standard forms and sending them off - my accountants did this for me for free (/included in monthly charge)

[WTFH]

£250 for an hours work!! How much do you think accountants earn!?

It's not how much an individual earns, but how much their company charges.

If you think £250/hr is a lot, you've never paid for solicitors to sue an agency.

[pr1]

Which is nice of you to offer but I'd be surprised (pleasantly) if I came across this. It's an extra service for which I'd expect to be charged. It would take more than an hour and would rely on expert knowledge to use the best setup and avoid problems for which you also expect to come with a charge. I'd say you are selling yourself short there but if it's part of a bigger customer retention exercise then good on you.

£250 for doing this seems more than reasonable, £500 too much maybe so negotiate. Still wouldn't be doing it myself even if I had half an idea.

£250 for an hours work!! How much do you think accountants earn!?

[washed up contractor]

Be cheaper to close the company and start a new one with both the OP and wife as shareholders (obviously not going the ER route).

Think Id be asking my long term accountant, hint, hint, that I was looking for a lower price. Did this with my long time accountant when the bills were increasing each year. He asked how much of a reduction I was looking for so told him I wasnt a greedy person so how about 10% off the top. Agreed, he said. Worked for me!

[northernladuk]

Hmmmm, perhaps we should be charging for this then......normally cover it as standard help through the year as it's pretty straight forward.

Oh, so it seems it's part of the service. Useful to know should I ever need this service. Maybe I'm thinking back to SJD times when you got charged for everything above and beyond the basic service.

[DolanContractorGroup]

£500.00 seems a bit steep, but dependant on the share structure as mentioned if A & B shares may be justifiable.

I'm sure quite a few contractor accountants, could assist in this service as a part of their monthly fee or for a much smaller fee.

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

Charges

Hmmmm, perhaps we should be charging for this then......normally cover it as standard help through the year as it's pretty straight forward.

[northernladuk]

£500? That's is really steep!

You need to:

Appoint your wife as a director at companies house
Issue another share in your company at companies house
Allocate that share to her

That is all just admin tasks. Sometimes we charge a small fee for dealing with this (by small I mean around £50), otherwise we do it with no charge.

You are correct in that companies house is where you need to start, if you log in with your authentication code, you will be able to add a director and issue more shares.

PM me if you need any assistance.

Which is nice of you to offer but I'd be surprised (pleasantly) if I came across this. It's an extra service for which I'd expect to be charged. It would take more than an hour and would rely on expert knowledge to use the best setup and avoid problems for which you also expect to come with a charge. I'd say you are selling yourself short there but if it's part of a bigger customer retention exercise then good on you.

£250 for doing this seems more than reasonable, £500 too much maybe so negotiate. Still wouldn't be doing it myself even if I had half an idea.

[WTFH]

My accountants charge £250, but that included splitting the shares into A & B shares, that way my dividends are at a different level to The Wife (tm). She is not a director, just a shareholder.