my accountant?

[theroyale]

Thanks a lot guys , I am getting my contract and working practice reviewed and would take the decision based on the outcome. I checked some of the accountants mentioned here and they are quite pricey when compared with my local accountant. I will be changing my accountant anyway, but yet to decide whether to go for a local accountant recommended by a colleague or to go for the contractor's accountant.

Wondering what happened after this last post of yours? What was the outcome of your contract review and what did you do based on that?

[yasyas]

Thanks a lot

Thanks a lot guys , I am getting my contract and working practice reviewed and would take the decision based on the outcome. I checked some of the accountants mentioned here and they are quite pricey when compared with my local accountant. I will be changing my accountant anyway, but yet to decide whether to go for a local accountant recommended by a colleague or to go for the contractor's accountant.

[jetrimby]

As a "local" accountant I would always review the contract and say yes or no if easy (and a lot are) but there is a big gray area where I would not guarantee my opinion and the contactor associations etc are the best to use (especially those that will back up their decision if you are challenged) I do have the foreign company option in my collection but it should only be offered as an alternative and you should not be forced down that route unless you are entirely comfortable. (it is a good earner for accountants and for no work so it is an easy push to make, to be fair I think it is also a good choice for many) but my couple of contractors are still IR35/Ltd Co and sole traders at moment so I'm definately not pushing hard!
BUT best advice is that as you are clearly not "bonding" with this accountant dont hesitate and go somewhere else quick! I'm not keen of the "specialists" but then I am not one so you would expect nothing different!
Best of Luck

[ratewhore]

I suppose it depends on your point of view. I want an accountant to do my accounts, nothing more, because that is what they specialise in.

For all contracting related advice, I look to the PCG and other, similiar organisations...

[Sally BFCA]

You would, you're a 'Contractors Accountant'.

Explain how a 'Contractors Accountant' differs from any other accountant providing advice to small business? Apart from providing a spreadsheet and advising 'low salary, high divvy' for tax efficiency?

In my personal opinion, legislation, however it all boils down to personal choice.

The contracting industry is drowning in it, IR35, MSC, Income shifting for a start.

Many 'local' or 'high street' accountants do not have purely service companies as their clients, therefore are not wholly open to MSC rules for example.

It is a 'contractor' accountants vested interest to ENSURE that they are fully abreast of any changes in legislation as it has an impact on ALL of their clients. They should have expert knowledge of the industry....

...and there are a whole heap of industries in which to have expert knowledge.

This is not to say that non-contractor accountants don't know their 'stuff';
BUT if a newbie contractor doesn't know the right questions to ask, how will they know if they have or haven't been advised accordingly?

[northernladuk]

You would, you're a 'Contractors Accountant'.

Explain how a 'Contractors Accountant' differs from any other accountant providing advice to small business? Apart from providing a spreadsheet and advising 'low salary, high divvy' for tax efficiency?

Well I am leaving my current local accountant in favour of one of the ones mentioned on here hoping they are more a 'Contractors Accountant' than my local one. In the year and a bit I had him I struggled with confidence that he was bought in to what I was doing. It felt like he was doing what he had to do at certain times rather than knowing what he was doing if that makes sense. Just didn't give me a good feeling at all. I know how bad they all can be but talking to my colleagues they didn't suffer this level of confidence issue from the established 'Contractor Accountant'.

[ratewhore]

I would recommend looking for a 'Contractor's Accountant' as opposed to one that lives in your area. Most of them provide services through email and telephone as opposed to face to face meetings, thus saving your precious time.

You would, you're a 'Contractors Accountant'.

Explain how a 'Contractors Accountant' differs from any other accountant providing advice to small business? Apart from providing a spreadsheet and advising 'low salary, high divvy' for tax efficiency?

[xoggoth]

For ordinary bread and butter things always found local accounts better but contract review probably needs some expertise.

[Sally BFCA]

I would recommend looking for a 'Contractor's Accountant' as opposed to one that lives in your area. Most of them provide services through email and telephone as opposed to face to face meetings, thus saving your precious time.

[northernladuk]

my EX-accountant?

FTFY

[mudskipper]

Even if you are inside IR35, you can still work through your LtdCo.

[ratewhore]

Why are you showing your contract to an accountant? Get an IR35 specialist to tell you if (on balance) you are in or out. Then tell the accountant by all means so they can offer you proper financial advice based on that...

[Hex]

Search for Accountant threads on this forum. There are many discussing SJD Accountancy, Nixon Williams, Upton Accountants and many others.

Get your contract reviewed by a professional to determine its IR35 status. Look at QDOSConsulting (www.qdosconsulting.com) or Bauer & Cottrell (http://www.bauerandcottrell.co.uk/)

Don't get suckered into some offshore umbrella solution unless you are really convinced it works and its for you.

[yasyas]

Hi all,
New to this forum. I really appreciate the great posts and support here. I started my own ltd company and started my project (in IT) 2 weeks ago. We went to an accountant nearby and I don't think that he is the right person. Here is what happened when we met him a couple of days ago for the first time,

He looked at the contract, literally flicked through pages in less than 5 mins and declared that IR35 will be a problem.

He asked us a couple of questions, for example, "the right to do work at your own time and at your own pace". We tried to explain to him that when you are an IT contractor working on a project funded for say 3 months, you have to go and do the work in that time period, but you can't go on extending things at your own pace. You have to be at the client's place and do office hours for several reasons such as secured access to the data, to facilitate exchange of information between different groups and building security constraints. I told him that depending on the nature of work, the constraints could be different and so would the IR35 conditions be. He didn't listen to us, instead, compared this to say a plumber's work, which is a different case altogether, and used the same yardstick to judge our scenario and insisted that IR35 would be a problem for us and we should look for alternatives.

Throughout the meeting he tried to sound intimidating as if we are doing something wrong and HMRC is going to catch us and kept on recommending some umbrella company scheme (I am sure he is a part of it). I really disliked the idea of the umbrella solution (some offshore based , you have no control over your hard earned own money).

My policy is that if my work genuienly comes under IR35, then I would pay the tax fully cause that is fair enough. But if it doesn't then I have every right to keep my hard earned money in a fair way. I don't want to take any shortcuts and end up in a mess.

What to look for in choosing an accountant for IT contractors? What role does an accountant play when an enquiry comes up? Does anyone have any recommendations for such accountants in Reading area?