Reply to: Do you really need an accountant?

[Austin Wong]

Thanks guys, you are a wealth of information.

[malvolio]

And if you want an accountant that really understands IR35, look for one with the QA accreditation...

http://www.pcg.org.uk/cms/index.php?...363&Itemid=487

[Jason D]

Austin

Regardless of whether you manage your receipts and expenses your accountant will still have to reprocess all the entries to ensure that the correct accounting treatment is given. He will also have other duties to comply with to ensure that your financial statements comply with all relevent legislation. £1400 - £1600, whilst not cheap, is not unreasonable. You will get tax relief of approx £300 on that and get the VAT back if that quote was inclusive. Do it yourself and I guarantee that you will get at least one aspect wrong, and open yourself up to problems.

This thread sums up why you need an accountant with the amount of wrong information on it! I particulary like the one above stating that £60 - £90 per month equates to £720 to £810 a year!

You should be able to get a decent accountant to do your annual accounts and Corporation tax for £1,000.00 plus VAT. I you want an all in package of self assesment, PAYE, VAT, company secretarial etc then you will be looking at up to another £500.00 plus VAT.

[XLMonkey]

The majority of accountants specialising in contracting companies charge between 60 and 90/month. So, that's 720 - 810 /year. All of them should save you more than they charge in reduced effort and keeping you up to speed on ways of saving tax.

Whoever you got that quote from is charging too much.

[Austin Wong]

Ok,

So if you are doing all the management of receips yourself and compile it for an accountant, what would you expect to pay for them to do your returns.

Say in my situation I will be a one man band?

One chartered accountant quoted me 1400 to 1600 pounds a year.

Ok so I am not from the UK. I may be dumb but I sure ain't stoopid.

[ittony]

Don't forget that NI for directors is different from that of a standard employee....

In what way?

[oraclesmith]

In answer to your original question....

Yes.

[Jason D]

In answer to the original question you can get by without an accountant but are opening yourself up to problems combined with paying too much/too little taxes.

A good accountant (ie me) will:

Minimise your tax laibility;
Utulise any losses to best effect;
Run your payroll;
Give the correct accounting treatment to differing items;
Maximise your allowances;
Deal with HMRC on your behalf;
Run you payroll and year end returns;
Ensure you are compliant with your director responsibilities;
Set the company up in the most tax efficient way;
Deal with your VAT issues and returns;
Be more up to date with company law / tax issues / accounting treatment than you;
Save you more per annum than he charges
Mimimise your exposure to IR35
Help you to avoid interest, fines penalties and surchages
Deal with the Corporation tax as well as your own self assesment
Ensure than disallowable items are not included in you tax computation
Keep you on the right side of HMRC; and
prepare your annual accounts in keeping with statutory requirements

Successful people stick to what they are good at.

Get yourself an accountant!

As an aside, directors do not pay a higher rate of NI.

[Austin Wong]

Apparentely anyone can call themselves an accountant even if unqualified.

Tha advice is to make sure they are chartered.

Check this link

http://www.icaew.com/index.cfm?route=109945

Also, don't use just any chartered accountant either. There are many specialist fields.

Prime example is one I spoke to today who did not know what an IR35 was. He gave me a contact for a tax specialist chartered accountant that he uses.

[Lewis]

I phoned them up. I can just deduct the overpayment from my next payslip so it'll all come out in the wash. Have been phoning around accountants though!

[cartlidgea]

Dont Worry Lewis the only way you learn and sometimes correct yourself is by asking questions or by putting your view point across. The way I understand it is that you dont have to pay Employer or Employee NI until you have exceeded the £5225 threshhold as a director then you pay a higher percentage NI after that. They are so helpful mate im sure if you ring them up they will help.......hmmm! Did you pay by cheque and the yellow slip if so can you cancel it?

[Bluebird]

Munch, Munch (that's me eating my hat!)

So am I the only paranoid one that is worried about the contracting big boy accoutants being somehow classifed as MSCs? I know they say they are safe but I read somewhere about an accounting body asking for clarification of the legislation to confirm that acountants would not be caught. Arggh it's so annoying. I don't expect anything other than "they are safe" so this is more a rhetorical question and statement of frustration!!

This whole bl&&dy MSC thing just p^sses me off

So now I have submitted a PAYE yellow slip for £160 whereas I am thinking it should have been NIL. I guess it will just sit on account until I go over the £5K threshold but I have to somehow sort it out.

HMRC provided the clarification.

as for the 2nd point, I don't know, but if I wanted to I'd ask HMRC - you can speak to them.

[Lewis]

Munch, Munch (that's me eating my hat!)

So am I the only paranoid one that is worried about the contracting big boy accoutants being somehow classifed as MSCs? I know they say they are safe but I read somewhere about an accounting body asking for clarification of the legislation to confirm that acountants would not be caught. Arggh it's so annoying. I don't expect anything other than "they are safe" so this is more a rhetorical question and statement of frustration!!

This whole bl&&dy MSC thing just p^sses me off

So now I have submitted a PAYE yellow slip for £160 whereas I am thinking it should have been NIL. I guess it will just sit on account until I go over the £5K threshold but I have to somehow sort it out.

[Bluebird]

Hmmm it wouldn't let me tick that box on the CD ROM some error about the director start date. In which case I think I'd better retrack my previous comments and go and get an accountant

To explain further ... the ONLY reason I don't have an accountant is because of the MSC legislation. I want to join one of the big boys so I get specialist advice but am afraid hector is going to try and get them as an MSC. Was waiting to see if the legislation got clarified over next few months. I know people say accountants won't be caught but it just doesn't seem clear to me and hector has never been reasonable!

So it seems I have done my NI as a normal employee not a director. I assume also that means I am paying NI up front instead of delaying. So if I want to revert to being paid as director (I have only made one PAYE payment to date) how do I adjust to get back the £94.81 NI I have already paid?

GET AN ACCOUNTANT.

[malvolio]

Tum ti tum ti tum....