accountants

[marie111]

How many of you use an accountant?
What do you use them for?
I was considering getting one just for tax returns really and wondered how much would it cost just for this.
Do you just hand over all your receipts, bank statements etc. etc. and they do the rest?
I'm finding I'm getting further and further behind doing all my books and maybe its time to ask for help.

 

[pure]

I will use an accountant do do my personal tax for me. Because my husband and I already have one business which I draw an income from when I go mobile in the summer it will all just be too confusing for me!!

I'll do the daily/weekly book-keeping and then just hand everything over and the end of the tax year. Maths was never my strong point!

 

[Trinity]

I use an accountant to do my tax return each year. I do all the hard work like put all my outgoings and income on an Excel spreadsheet and he does all the accountancy bits like deducting any allowances he reckons I'm entitled too, then sends it to me for signing.

He charges me £100+vat but guarantees to save me at least that in allowances etc. He even managed to get me an £800 rebate in my first year despite the fact I made a loss of over £3k, which I think was pretty impressive and I would never have known how to do it, so he's worth his money to me.

I know a couple of self-employed guys who don't do any of the collation stuff and just turn up with a carrier bag of receipts for the accountant to sort out and they get charged around the £500 mark.

It depends on how much your time is worth - if you are turning away clients, or working all the hours god sends to get everything done then it may be worth the money paying someone else to do it for you. For me, it's a case of using someone qualified to do the job for me - I don't expect him to do his own nails and he doesn't expect me to do my accounts :lol:

 

[~Emmsybabes~]

i was wondering about this too
wether i will need one , when my business gets going , coz i havent got a clue , how to do accounts etc...
i know i will learn , but it could be one very expensive lesson !!!!

 

[pazzy]

I havent used an accountant for a while because I couldnt really see what he was doing for me, so just went back to doing it myself.

As long as your books are up to date then it easy. But then I am just self employed with no staff so there is little to do. If I had a salon with staff - then an accountant would be worth his/her weight in gold.

 

[JDs]

Before I became a salon owner, I pretty much did my taxes myself, but then when I bought my salon and my book work tripled on me, I ran with books in hand and hired myself an accountant (CPA). At tax time, they seem to know all the legal loopholes. Saves me hours of crunching numbers and making sure I got all the tax deductions I can get.

 

[dobermum]

I do my accounts weekly using an accounts package but I submit everything to the accountant at the end of the tax year and he does his stuff and gets me a nice tax return.

Usually his bill is £300.00 but this year I have invested in Sage Accounts and all I've had to do is print of a profit & loss for the year and he will work from that and charge me approx £100.00 hth

 

[Sassy Hassy]

I havent used an accountant for a while because I couldnt really see what he was doing for me, so just went back to doing it myself.

As long as your books are up to date then it easy. But then I am just self employed with no staff so there is little to do. If I had a salon with staff - then an accountant would be worth his/her weight in gold.

yup I'm exactly the same! I went on the IR courses that told me what I could and couldn't claim for, I sort my receipts as I go, and tally my income weekly so it's pretty easy to do at the end of the year ... done my 06-07 return already! It would be a nightmare if you had to do it all at once at the end of the year TBH.

 

[Susie H]

yup I'm exactly the same! I went on the IR courses that told me what I could and couldn't claim for, I sort my receipts as I go, and tally my income weekly so it's pretty easy to do at the end of the year ... done my 06-07 return already! It would be a nightmare if you had to do it all at once at the end of the year TBH.

First year I used an accountant, he charged me £350 and all he did was take the figures I gave him and put them in the boxes on the form:irked: didn't tell me anything I could claim for and as it turned out, he got it wrong so Paul did the course, same as Sas and he does my books. Totaly agree with Sas though, you have to keep on top of it, its half an hour a week and no night mares

 

[Sassy Hassy]

First year I used an accountant, he charged me £350 and all he did was take the figures I gave him and put them in the boxes on the form:irked: didn't tell me anything I could claim for and as it turned out, he got it wrong

Yup mine too. When i got my first self assessment form I panicked so got them to fill it out. Even I could see they had missed bits and got bits wrong! Most pages aren't relevant and it is so easy to complete, especially when you do it online as it picks up any errors instantly. The only tricky bit is your capital allowances for your equipment like nail desks, couches etc etc