Book Keepers / Accountants

[bombini]

After the stress of doing my first tax return - which I still haven't completed - Ive decided this year im going to get an accountant or book keeper but am wondering what exactly do they do ? Sounds like a stupid question I know but do you just roll up with boxes of receipts etc ? What exactly do you have to give them ?

My boyfriend is self employed and has an accountant but he doesn't seem capable of answering the question which is why ive turned to you guys !

 

[JDs]

LOl yeah you pretty much roll up with boxes of reciepts..
You give them your income numbers (daily appt book?)
You give them all reciepts that you paid out out of pocket:
Insurance
supplies
Gas mileage
any magazine subscriptions for your trade that you subscribed to?
bank account charges

Anything that you spent money on for your business
And
Anything that brought you income in.

My accountant asks that I have my daily totals added up for outgoing expenses and Income
It saves them a bit of time and me a bit of money.

 

[joe90]

I pretty much had all my stuff ready for my accountant, but you can just save all your receipts up in a box and give them to him at the end of the tax year to sort out. So for me it really is only doing my tax return, but he is always there if I need to ask questions about what I can claim etc and we will be having a mid year meeting to see how things are going.

I pay £20 a month by DD to him for anything I want doing really (tax wise of course - lol). I thought it was a lot of money for what he was going to do for me but he has been worth his weight in gold as he got me an almost £900 tax rebate - nice when you get something back from the tax man!!

 

[bombini]

Thanks to both of you

I am liking the idea of turning up with all the recipts at the moment ! :green:

I keep a record of income/expenditure but the thought of doing another tax return makes my blood run cold !

Does anyone know the sort of prices I should be paying for a tax return ?

 

[JDs]

I don't know of prices over in the UK so can't help you there, here in the states I pay about 300 usd a year.
Just to keep your accountant on a happy level, make sure you sort your reciepts by at least the months..it is just so much easier for them to sort out. :wink2: My accountant charges by how much work they actually have to do..by the hour.

 

[bombini]

Thanks Jayne,

Guess the least I can do is sort them out into seperate months

Ive called a few places and the average is about £200 for the area im in.

 

[joe90]

£200 is about what I am paying, but there is no hourly charge just this set rate. Some accountants I rang wanted between £400-£600.

 

[marie111]

I've just started using an accountant and paid him £250 for tax return.
There were things he claimed for which I wouldn't have known about which totalled more than his £250 fee.
I have phoned him a couple of times since regarding tax credits etc. and he has got back to me within an hour with figures, all in with his price.

 

[izzidoll]

Last time I did my own tax return I did it online and it was so easy...it did all the calculations for you....and the tax man gave ME £250 as an incentive for doing it online. This was a couple of years ago mind!!

 

[Les]

Firstly I this area is NOT my speciality. I am an auditor not an accountant, there is a big difference, so please don’t take anything I say as gospel.

Just wanted to add a couple of points.

1 - A box full of receipts will cost you a lot of money and not make you very popular with your accountant – you want to keep your accountant very happy, a good one is worth their weight in gold. Follow the other advice you have been given on how much prep to do yourself.

2 - Remember that the nail industry is not your accountant’s trade so make life easier by annotating your receipts. You know that the primer you bought is for legitimate business use but how do they know that you didn’t get it to undercoat your living room. OK poor example but you get my drift.

3 - See if they will have a look at the one you have already submitted. No disrespect intended but you probably missed loads. Mind you there is no guarantee that it will be in your favour!

HTH

Leslie

 

[Kim Lawless]

Firstly I this area is NOT my speciality. I am an auditor not an accountant, there is a big difference, so please don’t take anything I say as gospel.

Just wanted to add a couple of points.

1 - A box full of receipts will cost you a lot of money and not make you very popular with your accountant – you want to keep your accountant very happy, a good one is worth their weight in gold. Follow the other advice you have been given on how much prep to do yourself.

2 - Remember that the nail industry is not your accountant’s trade so make life easier by annotating your receipts. You know that the primer you bought is for legitimate business use but how do they know that you didn’t get it to undercoat your living room. OK poor example but you get my drift.

3 - See if they will have a look at the one you have already submitted. No disrespect intended but you probably missed loads. Mind you there is no guarantee that it will be in your favour!

HTH

Leslie

My accountant is a lovely guy and very professional. He charges £500 and I must admit, I've thought about going cheaper. In your persoanl opinion, is there any difference between one that charges £300 to one that charges £500? Do they do any more?

 

[Les]

Good accountants are worth every penny.

His fee will be based upon

The generally accepted fee for that area (geography and topic)

How much work he has to do to your accounts (full manicure costs more than a file and polish). This counts for the amount of prep you do as well as for the size of your business

His level of expertise (ie Grand Master compared to trainee or worse some numpty with a Sally Hanson special). Tax law is the most horrendously complicated thing that you could ever imagine, and it changes every year! CPD in his industry is absolutely essential.

Just as we as professionals (well not me cause I’m not trained yet) are responsible for the health (as far as our treatments go) of our clients nails. He is responsible for your tax health and by that I mean keeping you legal! You don’t want the tax man on your tail.

You should all be aware that the tax man has the power to investigate ALL the clients of an accountant should they decide that he is up to no good. So going with an accountant cause you have heard will help you diddle the tax man (as apposed to just making sure you get all you are entitled to) can work out to be a very bad investment.

Please don’t change to someone else just because they are cheaper. I would advise anyone who is looking for an accountant/bookkeeper to at least get a personal recommendation.

I am not saying that cheap is bad and expensive is good (or vice versa) but you do want to be confident that your accountant is up to date, wont let you do anything illegal and is approachable.

Not really answering your question but I hope that has been helpful and not offended or scared anyone. You will all be able to get your own back when I start my 1st course (VTCT level 2 nail treatments) at the end of next month and begin to plague you all with questions.

Leslie

 

[purpleivy]

Hi

I did my tax return online a couple of weeks ago, having got most of the information together from the paper copy supplied before hand.

It was complicated in some respects i.e, that there are lots of bits and pieces, that I have a PAYE job, my own self employed income from Nails/Massage etc (whoops LOL! that sounds a bit dodgy!) and also dividends from my dh's company, shares (small amount) and interest from bank accounts to add in.

There was one section which I wasn't sure about, so I rang the number supplied and got an answer right away.

COmpleted form and found I had 40p to pay! I don't know what I was worried about quite honestly.

 

[SportsGuru]

Hi i agree with what has been said basicaly but please remmeber a lot of accountants charge by the hour, so the advice our accountant gave to us was the more you can do to make his life easier the cheaper his bill to you will be???? Example make sure your receipts are in date order if he spens two or three hours sorting them out who pays YOU!, also split them further into porofessional use and retail use

if you use a cash register or pdq machine please remember to keep all end of day print offs from these preferably in date order and usualy month order as well ( Again save your accountant time )

as said before your aqccountant will not know much about the Beauty / Nail Industry so dont assume he will know what a Collagen mask or exfoliator is, just split into professional expenses, Retail expenses, Salon expenses ie Rent, Telephone, Electric etc

Also dont forget to claim for Things like petrol for work buisness always ask the garage for a VAT fuel receipt and again file these in date order, keep a rough idea of the mileage that you do in a year related to buisness ie to and from work going on courses where ever you travel related to your buisness, if anyone else does thing for you on behalf of your buisness you can claim for that to!

yes a good accountant can be worth his wait in gold i would suggest you phone a few they will usualy give you like a 30 min free consultation where they will tell you exactly what they want from you! BUT remember to ask them what YOU can do to make there life eaiser and save you MONEY LOL

Tip :- take a note book and a pen and write down key information they give you as you will probably leave head spinning!

hph:green::green::green:

 

[fats28]

I work as a trainee accountant and if you do as much as you can yourself it will be much cheaper for you overall.

Much of it you will already do, tallying up your daily/weekly income obviously against the appointment book. Keep receipts in date order and I would strongly suggest numbering them and then keeping a book with an explanation of what each receipt refers to and its use. Whilst it sounds like fun to dump a box of receipts down at the end of the year, trust me its an accounting nightmare especially if you have no idea what the products on the receipt are used for.

You can employ a book keeper if you want to totally wash your hands of the whole accounting bit, its not much money a month and they will take the box with pleasure!!

 

[jo-from-moorspa]

Also dont forget to claim for Things like petrol for work buisness always ask the garage for a VAT fuel receipt and again file these in date order, keep a rough idea of the mileage that you do in a year related to buisness ie to and from work going on courses where ever you travel related to your buisness, if anyone else does thing for you on behalf of your buisness you can claim for that to!

I too agree that a good accountant is worth his weight in gold.

With claiming petrol back you have to be careful. The first question to ask is who owns the car? Is it owned by you personally or is it owned by the business.

The likely answer is that it is a personal car rather than the business' car. This mean that you can make a claim for mileage rather than just claiming back you petrol receipts, insurance etc.

It is normally around 40pence a mile (for the first 10000 miles) which takes into consideration petrol, servicing, insurance, tyres etc. It is best to make a note of all the business mileage you do, with date, start point, destination and distance travelled.

Again if you have an accountant speak to him about it and he will advise you the best way.

regards
Jo
Beauty products | Beauty Therapy | Professional Treatments | Beauty Supplies- Moorspa.co.uk

 

[fats28]

Yes thats a good point about the mileage, if anyone wants a mileage sheet i have a template at home for one that you can use to detail business mileage on a monthly basis. PM me and I'll email you it but it will be tomorrow.