Accountants - how much do you pay…

[Poppy209]

….yours to work out and submit your annual return? That’s all I need….there’s no payroll, wages etc and figures are handed across on an excel doc. Ditto stocktake. 2 products/ v simple w t/o less than 3k? I’d be grateful for any input ;) PS Does anyone do their own??

Limited company or self assessment?

Prices vary so much

Always did my own and my husbands. I have always found the Revenue to be really helpful to self employed, but we were not limited which makes a difference.

Are you in England/ Wales?

If so, there's no longer an annual return - it's replaced with a confirmation statement, which gives details of directors and shareholders. This is separate to the financial statements/ accounts, which gives details of the income, expenditure for the year and balances at the end of the year.

You also need to file a tax return/ CT600 with HmRC - this is separate to the directors' tax returns.

In Ireland, I think the accounts are filed alongside the annual return, but the tax return is still needed. I'm not sure about Scotland, but think it's closer to England and Wales.

To add - that's all for a limited company. If it's a sole trader/ partnership (unincorporated business), the Companies House (or equivalent) filings aren't needed, and the tax filing requirements change

Do you need to file in Xbrl, if so they need to be properly tagged and formatted

Hi - thanks so much for the swift replies. Based in England and Limited. Sorry - I used the old language and understand the 2 now separate things. Mine is currently charging £900 which seems massively steep. I’d set aside £300 as more than enough. Think the govt website automatically formats Xbrl for you ?

I would say anything less than £750 is unlikely. If it’s so easy why don’t you do it yourself?

By the way the government gateway needs things to be in a certain format to pick up the tagged amounts, but if you are unlimited just do simple receipts and payments if you are below the limit.

Used to pay £1500 when vat registered and needing advice. Now pay £700ish.

….thanks Peaseblossum. There are online accountants that charge around £40 gross per month for annual (inc payroll, advice etc which I don’t need)

My advice would be just find a small local practitioner if you don’t want to do it yourself . Ask around for recommendations or just ring a couple for a quote

We paid £20 weekly to our accountants for a Ltd company tax return... a sole trader tax return is around £350 + vat? This is in West London.

We charge a minimum of £1,200 + VAT for limited company accounts

Thanks all for your responses. I’ve been in touch with 3 local firms on Peaseblosum’s recommendation and the quotes are £400-£500. Also got a quote from an online firm with good reviews who quoted £360 (but that included a load of stuff I don’t need.) Its been an interesting exercise but what an enormous difference!

Have you taken into account whether the quotes are from qualified accountants? It's not a protected profession and literally anyone can call themselves an accountant and start an accountancy practice!

I pay £101 a month. @Poppy209 those quotes are cheap! I’d be interested in the online one if you’re willing to share details.

we’d charge at least £1200 plus for limited company accounts and ct600. For something tiny with virtually no transactions then maybe slightly less. Why don’t you go with the online one if you are happy they can provide the service, it doesn’t matter if you don’t need all the services if it’s cheaper anyway and price is your only concern.

Out of interest if your t.o is only £3000 per annum do you need to bother with a limited company? Why not operate as sole trader as by the time you’ve taken off your expenses off there can’t be much of a profit

£900 is a more than reasonable, quite cheap'ish price.

another one slightly surprised you are a limited company when there’s only £3K turnover..: unless that was a typo?
Would it not be better to be a sole trader or partnership?
im sure you could do your own self assessment return for one thing

@Oblomov22 yes but £900 when turnover is £3K seems crazy!

Christ, sorry, missed that. £3k? Why bother then? I don't mean running the co, I mean ltd?

I pay my accountant £50 per month (self employed). He is worth every single penny.

I read somewhere that you should be looking at roughly 1% of your turnover.
if you are only making 3k a year though - why would you be a limited company? It’s really not worth it for that. As a sole trader I charge £225 for a SATR, but will break it down to £25 a month and included bookkeeping too (because that makes the SATR so much easier to complete)