Looking to change Accountants

[Bluebird]

My current accountants are OK in that they look after all my invoicing clients and banking money etc., but I would be interested in getting someone who is more pro-active in offering advice on business/personal finance.

Any recommendations?

Sounds like you need an umbrella.

[simondolan]

Even though I'm working through my own limited company?

Absolutely - this is what the whole MSC thing is about.

[sidknows]

who are you using thats got control of your company bank account ?

[vhadiant]

Even though I'm working through my own limited company?

Yes you have to do your own invoicing and have a full control on your bank account. Otherwise it can be classified as MSC.

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

This is a difficulty for me too.

I started off with a personal friend. He has an accountancy company but doesn't deal generally with contractors. He was helpful personally and was always happy to give free advice. However, his company's advice was often different and I was being charged for everything. Result = not cheap and conflicting advice.

I have now changed to one of the companies that frequent this board. They are much cheaper and nclude many things in the price that others would charge extra for. However, early impressions are that they keep their costs down by running a "sausage machine". What I mean is they recommend how you operate and if you work within that then everything runs smoothly. Howver, if you want to do something "outside the sausage machine", it's either "not recommended" or you have to reseach the situation yourself, emails go unanswered etc. I'm beginning to now feel that I could pay less tax which would go a long way against offsetting the higher charges of an accountant that was working with me to reduce my tax liability in better understanding my needs.

You probably need to decide what you want from an accountant and whether you're happy to just take a reasonable salary and the rest in dividends

[KathyWoolfe]

So they invoice for you and bank your money? They will be classed as an MSC which is seriously bad news for you.

You need to move to a proper firm of accountants and start doing these jobs yourself - it's more work of course, but the days of managed companies are over I'm afraid.

Even though I'm working through my own limited company?

[simondolan]

My current accountants are OK in that they look after all my invoicing clients and banking money etc., but I would be interested in getting someone who is more pro-active in offering advice on business/personal finance.

Any recommendations?

So they invoice for you and bank your money? They will be classed as an MSC which is seriously bad news for you.

You need to move to a proper firm of accountants and start doing these jobs yourself - it's more work of course, but the days of managed companies are over I'm afraid.

[KathyWoolfe]

My current accountants are OK in that they look after all my invoicing clients and banking money etc., but I would be interested in getting someone who is more pro-active in offering advice on business/personal finance.

Any recommendations?