Are there any accountants here?

[HelpNeeded2021]

I'd be really grateful for any advice.

My son has married a woman from Central America. He's been there since October and they are applying for a visa so that she can live and work here.

They are now completing the visa application form - he will be her sponsor. He has to prove he can support her financially. As you can imagine, this form is a nightmare as it includes things that are not on the govt website and which he wasn't told about in phone calls to the home office beforehand.

He is self-employed. He does his own tax return and has evidence of that and also his bank statements.

However, they ask for this: "...unaudited accounts for the last financial year and an accountant's certificate of confirmation, from an accountant who is a member of a UK Recognised Supervisory Body or a member of the Institute of Financial Accountants"

The problem is that he doesn't use an accountant when he files his tax return. Now it seems he has to get an accountant in the UK to do this.

If you are an accountant, what would you expect him to produce? It would be good for him to get it together before approaching an accountant. Would they expect all receipts and proof of income? He only has his laptop there (he can work from anywhere.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

All this info is on the web but very much at the back of the filing cabinet iyswim

Just to give you an example - on the immigration section from that country on our govt's website it says they have to produce 6 months of bank statements. Once he'd collated what he could (with everything else) he phoned the home office and asked them whether he had everything. They said you'd better get 12 months. Then when he arrives there with 12 months of statements the visa form says it has to be the financial year which matches the tax return, not the last 12 months. That's just one example. It's been a nightmare!

All an accountants certificate says is that they have compiled the accounts from the records provided by the client.
So theoretically they don't need to do very much, but in practice they need to do anti-ML checks and satisfy themselves (to whatever extent) that they are comfortable signing off the certificate

It is ridiculous to have this requirement when it isn't a necessary for the preparation and submission of tax returns/accounts.

While his uncle might be suitably qualified and a member of the appropriate association, he probably won't have a practicing certificate therefore shouldn't (in accordance with his membership of said association) sign off on accounts.

Yes, agreed. And given a lot of self employed people don't use an accountant, then it might be an idea to say they want the accounts right from the beginning. I agree about his uncle, too - he'll just have to get in touch with an accountant here and ask.

Thanks, everyone, for your advice. It's been really helpful.

It's a fairly standard job tbh OP. Not an unusual request anyway.

Call a local accountant and ask 😊 we'd probably charge about £150 to £200 plus VAT to produce accounts from previously submitted return information.
You can do anti-money laundering checks using a company called smart search now so we do not need to have met the client in person etc. Most accountants will have at least one or two clients who are abroad and that is the only difficulty I see in your sons situation.
Even better is to get someone to recommend him an accountant because tbh it's a small job as a one off-fee but we'd do it if it came in via an existing client iykwim.

Thanks for that - yes, I'll check around and see who uses an accountant. It would have been easily done if he'd known this in advance - he usually lives here and is just visiting over there, otherwise it would've been straightforward.

Just to let you know that he signed up for QuickBooks, linked it to his bank account, categorised everything, photographed receipts and sent all the links to an accountant, who's signing it off. He'll stick with QuickBooks as it's so easy to use. Thanks, everyone!

Glad he got sorted OP!