I have to be honest and say my accountant didn't save me any money because I had made it my business to know everything I could claim for. And again, to be honest, once you've used an accountant and they have pointed out what you can claim for, the following year you will already know, and may not learn anything new or save any extra money. I used an accountant every year until the last year when I decided to do it myself and I found mistakes in what she had done :irked:
I totally agree with what someone else said, it is a very good idea to set aside a percentage of your earnings each week to cover your tax.
I have had some horrendous tax bills but at the end of the day, I think it's right and proper that we pay our taxes and there are so many people out there that think if you're self employed you can get away with it. Erm... no! We self-employed still have to pay our tax. If we were employed and paye we wouldn't complain half so much because we would focus more on our take home pay as our income.
One final point and I'm sorry if I'm stating the obvious - there is every point in us busting out ars*s to make money to give it to the tax man because what's the alternative?? Be lazy and good for nothing? I would rather have the income and pay the tax than not have the income in the first place....