Company to look after/advise on tax?

Miss Fluff

Please move if this is the wrong forum guys as I suppose it could fall under a few categories. If a person is to set themselves up as self-employed, am I right in saying that there are companies that you pay a small annual fee to every year and they look after your taxes and everything? Not like a big accountancy firm but if you were to set myself up as a company or sole trader with the CRO could you then pay a fee to a company who would either deduct the tax from earnings every month and sort all of the numbers stuff out? Do such entities exist? Thanks in advance!

ssbob

Miss Fluff wrote: »

Please move if this is the wrong forum guys as I suppose it could fall under a few categories. If a person is to set themselves up as self-employed, am I right in saying that there are companies that you pay a small annual fee to every year and they look after your taxes and everything? Not like a big accountancy firm but if you were to set myself up as a company or sole trader with the CRO could you then pay a fee to a company who would either deduct the tax from earnings every month and sort all of the numbers stuff out? Do such entities exist? Thanks in advance!

Hi Miss Fluff,

Really your local accounting practice could probably help you out here. If I were you I would contact your local accountant and seek a meeting. Normally we don't charge for intial meetings and at least you will get full guidance on cost etc v what you will get out of it?

ssbob

Gloomtastic!

Accountants' 'small' annual fee can be over E400 + VAT. Not an insignificant amount for any sole trader. You can however find accountants that charge as low as E150 and www.paylesstax.ie charges E189.00. If you register with Revenue On-line Service (ROS) and fill out your own return it's free.

My advice to you is to use an accountant the first year and keep a record of the template they ask you to fill in. Then the next year register for ROS and just change last year's figures for this years. It should take about 20 minutes. Then book yourself a weekend away with the money you've saved on an accountant! :rolleyes:

barneystinson

Gloomtastic, I seriously hope that last paragraph is sarcasm that just went over my head - particularly:

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

My advice to you is to use an accountant the first year and keep a record of the template they ask you to fill in. Then the next year register for ROS and just change last year's figures for this years. It should take about 20 minutes.

Anyone who is paying 400+ quid to an accountant who is basically getting the client to do their own tax return is obviously being fleeced, but in pretty much all cases if you are paying to get a professional service, the accountant will be checking over your figures to ensure completeness and correctness before completing the tax return, and this will be substantially more than 20 minutes work.

And seeing as how there are changes to the tax system every year, blindly following a template when you don't actually understand the figures you're working with is a surefire way to land yourself in bother.

A good accountant will always pay for themselves in saving their client time and money and giving good advice. The point of paying an accountant is that what they can do in a day might take the client a week to do themselves, and even then they can't be sure what they've done is correct - so to a certain extent it's a question of how much you value your own time...

Gloomtastic!

barneystinson wrote: »

Gloomtastic, I seriously hope that last paragraph is sarcasm that just went over my head - particularly:

Anyone who is paying 400+ quid to an accountant who is basically getting the client to do their own tax return is obviously being fleeced, but in pretty much all cases if you are paying to get a professional service, the accountant will be checking over your figures to ensure completeness and correctness before completing the tax return, and this will be substantially more than 20 minutes work.

And seeing as how there are changes to the tax system every year, blindly following a template when you don't actually understand the figures you're working with is a surefire way to land yourself in bother.

A good accountant will always pay for themselves in saving their client time and money and giving good advice. The point of paying an accountant is that what they can do in a day might take the client a week to do themselves, and even then they can't be sure what they've done is correct - so to a certain extent it's a question of how much you value your own time...

Yep, I was fleeced for years! :mad: Never again......

I take it you are an accountant. How much do you charge for filling out a tax return?

barneystinson

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

I take it you are an accountant. How much do you charge for filling out a tax return?

I am, and alas I charge nothing because I now bat for a different team so to speak so I'm not allowed to prepare tax returns for reward

DubTony

barneystinson wrote: »

I am, and alas I charge nothing because I now bat for a different team so to speak so I'm not allowed to prepare tax returns for reward

Jesus ... Everybody .... Hide !!!!!

ssbob

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Yep, I was fleeced for years! :mad: Never again......

I take it you are an accountant. How much do you charge for filling out a tax return?

It is all relative though, I have 3/4 very similar clients but their fee's range from €150 to about €600 depending on the amount of work they have put in, if you give me a showbox full of receipts I have to pay someone to sort through it, if you have all this already on a spreadsheet then it makes my job a lot easier.

I would say however that circumstances change and tax laws change year on year and while you will probably complete it ok, you could miss out on €100 here or there which invariably will pay for your accountant.