Subject says it all :-) September looming and I'm looking for an accountant with experience of self employed tradespeople (I'm a plumber and general jobber) who can advise me on doing my tax returns to best advantage wrt tax etc. (I can and do DIY my accounts, it's the stuff like rolling over trading losses from a start-up year to successive years that I'm looking for help with.)
tia
The smaller the firm, the cheaper they'll be and the more experience they'll have had with sole traders. Try and get a recommendation from other sole traders in your area.
Like my plumber though, if he thinks you can pay, an accountant will find a way to charge.
By concession, the IR allow a year-end of 31 March to be treated as 5 April, to avoid dealing with the 5 day gap. However, depending on how the losses accrue, it can be advantageous to extend the accounting period. Although not as beneficial as under the pre SA regime, a year end of 30 April gives you the longest time before accounts need be prepared and tax paid - e.g. 31 March 2004 means tax due by 31 January 2005, but 30 April 2004 means 31 January 2006. The IR will normally allow up to an 18 month accounting period for the first set of accounts, so 5 April could be a costly choice.
Selection of year-end is not as simple as might appear.
There are more possibilities for loss relief in the opening 4 years- including carrying back 3 years (useful for any employment income) and against CGT.
Also the method of asset acquisition can effect the profit/loss computation - cars, computers etc.
IMHO, an accountant could be useful in these circumstances.
I'm sure you're right, but at the end of the day it just boils down to shuffling profit around into tax years in such a way as not to waste unused allowances (if profit is low-marginal) or so as to avoid exceeding unnecessary thresholds (if profit is high-marginal), and if you hire an accountant to help you make the choice, having already decided to save money by doing the basic accounts yourself, it may well be that the accountant will be more expensive because he has first to "sort out" the "unsatisfactory" DIY acccounts.
And while choosing 30th or even 6th April as your accounting date will give you a whole extra year in which to sort out your accounts and pay your tax, in practice it means you will spend a whole extra 12 months procrastinating before you end up in a mad rush because the deadline is imminent. Far better to get it out of the way when things are still fresh in your mind. Ideally you should have all your data ready on 6th April to transfer to the tax return form as soon as it arrives.
One would need to carry out a cost/benefit analysis.
In general, I guess it depends on whether you'd rather spend a couple of evenings understanding the notes which accompany the tax forms, or paying an accountant possibly more than his advice will save you.
Maybe accountants should get into gimmick marketing along the lines of no-win no-fee lawyers, so that punters cound hire them with confidence that they won't cost them anything if they don't save them anything.
Hmm. Isn't the whole idea of an accountant that he knows your finances?
---8 a couple of evenings understanding the notes which accompany
Hear hear! :-)
This is all slightly complicated as I want to get a more flexible mortgage (ideally a current account mortgage - any suggestions? I asked BOS but they won't touch me until I've been trading 3 or 4 years) and I think I'll need my accounts audited for this; so if I'm going to have to pay an accountant to go through my accounts I'd guess getting advice on saving tax (and possibly also getting them to do the tax return) should be less expensive than if this were my sole business with them.
Don't know about self employed but the VirginOne account is excellent. No problems whatsoever transferring from our old current account. It's a true current account mortgage rather than a "flexible" mortgage and so is completely flexible with regard to underpayments/overpayments.
The letter saying they passed on the recent interest rate cut (in full) arrived within two business days of the cut being announced (compare that with the likes of Abbey National, etc., who procrastinate for weeks or months and then only pass on 0.1%).
No connection other than being a well pleased customer.
Andrew
Hi
This is very minor. Its when the shit hits the fan that you get to find out if your mortgager is good or bad.
Regards, NT
- which is why I want to change away from the Halifax.
That Shylock chap wasn't so bad really :-)
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