Any accountants for contractors on here?

[kellykettle]

I'm a qualified accountant but have largely worked in Man Accounts with the odd bit of capital and project work.

I am meeting someone to discuss working for them as an accountant for contractors and freelancers but I could do with a refresher on this.

Can anyone give me some info or point me towards something online?

I really want this to work out and I want to feel prepared.

Take a look at www.contractorcalculator.co.uk - I'm a freelancer and I use it all the time for accounting advice.

There's also a lot on www.pcg.org.uk

I'm a contractor and I use an online accountancy at www.crunch.co.uk. I think you can download their software and trial it for free, which you might find helpful.

Thanks so much both of you! I will check those out now

you need to sort your practicing cert, pii and all the other boring stuff

you don't need a practising cert but obviously then can't use your letters after your name. Wise to sort Pii and AML stuff though.

Though tbh you don;t make it clear whether you're going to be working for yourself or working for someone else on contractors and freelancers

crunch won;t tell you anything you don;t know if your a qualified accountant its pretty much accounting software. The first link to contract calculator is better, but beware a lot of sites give misleading advice (because they want people to become contractors) so double check everything with HMRC or I find Accounting WEb any questions very helpful.

kewcumber
if you are going to practice without a cert you have to resign from whichever CCAB body you are with FIRST

OP
if you are going to work for other firms, then you are covered by theirs

Yes sorry I wasn't thinking about that - indeed you cannot practice whilst you are a member of a professional body without letting your membership lapse.

Don't you think it's a bit off to talk someone into engaging you because you are an accountant, even though it's not your area of expertise?

Perhaps, you should do a bit of training into that area first?

It is quite a tricky area, because of IR35, and you may want to consider carefully whether you have the requisit knowledge to advise people who could potentially be liable for 10s or 100s of thousands of pounds in "deemed payments", if you advise incorrectly.

OP doesn't say she will be "advising people on IR35" just being an accountant for them and any accountant should be perfectly capable of accounting for freelancers and contractors and reading the HMRC guidance. OP also hasn't indicated anywhere that she is planinng to "talk someone into engaging" her! I read the OP as that she has been asked by a firm of accountants to join them working in this area.

I have clients who are freelance who very very obviously don't fall into IR35 and one who does. The one who does I have told her the IR35 issues, pointed out where her risk lies and suggested that she spends some additional money with an expert.

The real experts on IR35 in my experience are rarely interested in teh book-keeping and accounting side of things, they just give one off advice and charge handsomely for it.

Well, I apologise if I have interpreted the OP incorrectly.

I'm just trying to point out that a lay person won't necessarily understand the difference between a management accountant and an accountant in public practice.

I have no idea if you've interpreted the OP correctly or if I have, it isn't clear.

What is clear is that she is a qualified accountant NOT a lay person and as such she should be (assuming she qualified with a reputable institute not a correspondance course!) perfectly capable of understanding the issues around IR35 and knowing where to draw the line in advising clients.

Thanks Kewcumber, sanityclause and talkinpeace.

I was planning to obtain my practising certificate but I will be employed so perhaps that's not necessary. I'll check with my body. And I have made sure they are very aware of my background, experience and what I can't do. They use a specialist advisor on IR35 so that's not in my remit.

Anyway, I got the job and the timing of it all works out brilliantly for my redundancy.

Thanks everyone for your help

Good luck.

Working with freelancers and contractors may drive you into an early grave as an accountant, but the journey there is often fun!