[davidsabishop]

Just trying to get banned

How much do you pay for accountancy?

Last year I paid £700 which included a balance sheet. But the guy never even checked my receipts or statements.

PS to accountants - its a dead giveaway if you don't tick anything

So what do you pay for a sole trader accounts?

[Moderator David@stives]

less than £200 same as you just get the self assessment and final year sheet not much realy i thought £200 was expensive

  ouch

[easycleanwindows]

£700 quid thats broken down for tax return for partnership, my own return my wifes return and business partners return

[steve k]

easyclean, not many leave the fire brigade...what`s your story?
Good on you by the way, seem to be doing well.
I did 9 years in Merseyside.
remember the 13.5m 4 man close confined drill?

[thewindowcleaner1]

I have a book keeper she does my year end and fills in Tax return

In return I clean her windows (7 pains)
and when she see's me she gives me a very very big bag of pork scratchings (from where she workes full time

I love barter trading...

[Paul Coleman]

Just trying to get banned

How much do you pay for accountancy?

Last year I paid £700 which included a balance sheet. But the guy never even checked my receipts or statements.

PS to accountants - its a dead giveaway if you don't tick anything

So what do you pay for a sole trader accounts?

I pay a bit over £200.  For that he does the following  :-

He adds up my daily income to check that my annual turnover total is right - though he doesn't add up each individual job to check each daily total.  He goes through my receipts and adds them up and proportions them if something is part personal/part business. occasionally he may query a more obscure item if he doesn't know what it is.  He fills in my tax return and submits it.  He calculates my tax bill.  He spends about half hour with me going through stuff to explain what he's done.  He is also available by phone if I need to ask him about anything.  He has never charged me for that time but it's probably 15 - 20 minutes per year maximum - if anything at all.  In return for getting it at such a reasonable (IMO) rate, I make it easy for him.  I print details of income from my spreadsheet.  I print out my expenses sheet (and proportions).  I file my receipts - one cellophane sheet per month - rather than mixing them all up in one container.  In fact, I could probably sort it all out with the taxman direct quite easily by going down there once a year and losing a bit of time of work.  However, I like to have someone there to help for when a bit of paperwork comes through that I don't understand.

[Londoner]

Mine is £350 plus vat but I think thats too dear. I go to him with all the figure all added up and all he has to do is transfer the figures onto the forms.
 Mind you, he does claim for a lot that I don't think I would get away with if I was doing it myself.

[Ian Rochester]

About £450 for two sets of returns for me and my wife and for 3 separate businesses

[AuRavelling79]

Mrs Malc G does mine and deals directly with the Inland Revenue over any questions or queries - bless her cotton socks!

[Philip Hanson]

But the guy never even checked my receipts or statements.

I used to work for a firm of accountants, and the only time your receipts would be checked is if an audit was being performed, and even then, only a sample would be.

You are paying them to prepare statements from YOUR records, not to check that you've recorded everthing correctly.  After all, why should they do that?  That would take ages (and therefore cost you a fortune)  £700 sounds pretty reasonable for a chartered accountant, and window cleaners are small fry to them.

-Philip