Accountants/Advisors
Discussion
Looking to get some advice on accountants and financial advisors.
We have used the same accountants for the past 10 or more years and I have just kept going with them because they never did anything wrong they where in place before I took over from my parents so I didn't pay them much attention.
With the changes I have made to the company the last 5 years our products aren't made here and don't enter the UK much as only 1% of our sales are UK based. I have warehousing in Europe and Asia to distribute globally. The only reason our company is in the UK is because I live here and it has always been here.
With the IHT changes my parents and I have been having meetings with our accountants about what can be done to avoid it which has brought up the wider debate of while we are at it can we get creative with our tax situation.
In there meetings we have found ourselves quite frustrated that our accountants who are quite a big local firm never seem to offer any solutions. It is left to us to suggest lots of ideas which either get shot down probably quite rightly straight away or just kind of shrugged at as maybe possible. When he says he will look into it nothing happens.
I went and looked up how much we spend with them, between personal and company affairs we aren't getting much change out of 20k. Which is leading me to question what I actually get for that. My parents have a modest buy to let business which they have an accountant for who just produces their accounts for £800, they have been perfectly happy with him.
I guess what I would like to know from others with experience is am I expecting to much from our accountants or is this just the way that it is. The ball is mostly in our court if we want to try and do something with our tax situation or should they be coming up with ideas?
I fully accept that maybe there just isn't that much that can be done. But I just feel like its a very one way process. Also to my annoyance they run our pension which never seems to have performed in step with the markets.
We have used the same accountants for the past 10 or more years and I have just kept going with them because they never did anything wrong they where in place before I took over from my parents so I didn't pay them much attention.
With the changes I have made to the company the last 5 years our products aren't made here and don't enter the UK much as only 1% of our sales are UK based. I have warehousing in Europe and Asia to distribute globally. The only reason our company is in the UK is because I live here and it has always been here.
With the IHT changes my parents and I have been having meetings with our accountants about what can be done to avoid it which has brought up the wider debate of while we are at it can we get creative with our tax situation.
In there meetings we have found ourselves quite frustrated that our accountants who are quite a big local firm never seem to offer any solutions. It is left to us to suggest lots of ideas which either get shot down probably quite rightly straight away or just kind of shrugged at as maybe possible. When he says he will look into it nothing happens.
I went and looked up how much we spend with them, between personal and company affairs we aren't getting much change out of 20k. Which is leading me to question what I actually get for that. My parents have a modest buy to let business which they have an accountant for who just produces their accounts for £800, they have been perfectly happy with him.
I guess what I would like to know from others with experience is am I expecting to much from our accountants or is this just the way that it is. The ball is mostly in our court if we want to try and do something with our tax situation or should they be coming up with ideas?
I fully accept that maybe there just isn't that much that can be done. But I just feel like its a very one way process. Also to my annoyance they run our pension which never seems to have performed in step with the markets.
ntiz said:
I went and looked up how much we spend with them, between personal and company affairs we aren't getting much change out of 20k. Which is leading me to question what I actually get for that. My parents have a modest buy to let business which they have an accountant for who just produces their accounts for £800, they have been perfectly happy with him.
I would suggest asking them.For our small family business we get an itemised invoice which shows things like
- Filing confirmation statement
- Submitting Accounts to companies house
- Completing CT returns
- Administering Payroll
Eric will hopefully be a long soon but in the meantime....
In my experience, an Accountant isn't the best person to be proactively 'creative' when it comes to tax optimisation strategies. They will certainly help to ensure you don't pay any more than you need to but beyond that, I'd question whether they are appropriate for the task. I think that the onus is on you to research possible solutions and ideas and then ask your accountant to implement if they feel it a valid route to go.
That said, when I was looking to change a while back, I asked amongst my network for recommendations and was somewhat surprised at the number of people who responded with the question 'do you want a proper one or a 'handy' one?' - It seems there's many that are happy to operate in the more murkier side of the profession.
Financial Advisors are more likely to have more ingenious ideas as to how to optimise tax - legally, of course.
In my experience, an Accountant isn't the best person to be proactively 'creative' when it comes to tax optimisation strategies. They will certainly help to ensure you don't pay any more than you need to but beyond that, I'd question whether they are appropriate for the task. I think that the onus is on you to research possible solutions and ideas and then ask your accountant to implement if they feel it a valid route to go.
That said, when I was looking to change a while back, I asked amongst my network for recommendations and was somewhat surprised at the number of people who responded with the question 'do you want a proper one or a 'handy' one?' - It seems there's many that are happy to operate in the more murkier side of the profession.
Financial Advisors are more likely to have more ingenious ideas as to how to optimise tax - legally, of course.
ntiz said:
Looking to get some advice on accountants and financial advisors.
We have used the same accountants for the past 10 or more years and I have just kept going with them because they never did anything wrong they where in place before I took over from my parents so I didn't pay them much attention.
With the changes I have made to the company the last 5 years our products aren't made here and don't enter the UK much as only 1% of our sales are UK based. I have warehousing in Europe and Asia to distribute globally. The only reason our company is in the UK is because I live here and it has always been here.
With the IHT changes my parents and I have been having meetings with our accountants about what can be done to avoid it which has brought up the wider debate of while we are at it can we get creative with our tax situation.
In there meetings we have found ourselves quite frustrated that our accountants who are quite a big local firm never seem to offer any solutions. It is left to us to suggest lots of ideas which either get shot down probably quite rightly straight away or just kind of shrugged at as maybe possible. When he says he will look into it nothing happens.
I went and looked up how much we spend with them, between personal and company affairs we aren't getting much change out of 20k. Which is leading me to question what I actually get for that. My parents have a modest buy to let business which they have an accountant for who just produces their accounts for £800, they have been perfectly happy with him.
I guess what I would like to know from others with experience is am I expecting to much from our accountants or is this just the way that it is. The ball is mostly in our court if we want to try and do something with our tax situation or should they be coming up with ideas?
I fully accept that maybe there just isn't that much that can be done. But I just feel like its a very one way process. Also to my annoyance they run our pension which never seems to have performed in step with the markets.
No you aren't expecting too much. But you have to also ensure your accountants know what you want to achieve. Give them a brief as to what you'd be happy doing. If your accountant says something may be possible, they should get the answer for you. Or a range of options. Unfortunately far too many are happy to sit back and earn easy fees. Or they're too busy, don't know where to get the answer etc.We have used the same accountants for the past 10 or more years and I have just kept going with them because they never did anything wrong they where in place before I took over from my parents so I didn't pay them much attention.
With the changes I have made to the company the last 5 years our products aren't made here and don't enter the UK much as only 1% of our sales are UK based. I have warehousing in Europe and Asia to distribute globally. The only reason our company is in the UK is because I live here and it has always been here.
With the IHT changes my parents and I have been having meetings with our accountants about what can be done to avoid it which has brought up the wider debate of while we are at it can we get creative with our tax situation.
In there meetings we have found ourselves quite frustrated that our accountants who are quite a big local firm never seem to offer any solutions. It is left to us to suggest lots of ideas which either get shot down probably quite rightly straight away or just kind of shrugged at as maybe possible. When he says he will look into it nothing happens.
I went and looked up how much we spend with them, between personal and company affairs we aren't getting much change out of 20k. Which is leading me to question what I actually get for that. My parents have a modest buy to let business which they have an accountant for who just produces their accounts for £800, they have been perfectly happy with him.
I guess what I would like to know from others with experience is am I expecting to much from our accountants or is this just the way that it is. The ball is mostly in our court if we want to try and do something with our tax situation or should they be coming up with ideas?
I fully accept that maybe there just isn't that much that can be done. But I just feel like its a very one way process. Also to my annoyance they run our pension which never seems to have performed in step with the markets.
StevieBee said:
Eric will hopefully be a long soon but in the meantime....
In my experience, an Accountant isn't the best person to be proactively 'creative' when it comes to tax optimisation strategies. They will certainly help to ensure you don't pay any more than you need to but beyond that, I'd question whether they are appropriate for the task. I think that the onus is on you to research possible solutions and ideas and then ask your accountant to implement if they feel it a valid route to go.
That said, when I was looking to change a while back, I asked amongst my network for recommendations and was somewhat surprised at the number of people who responded with the question 'do you want a proper one or a 'handy' one?' - It seems there's many that are happy to operate in the more murkier side of the profession.
Financial Advisors are more likely to have more ingenious ideas as to how to optimise tax - legally, of course.
As you suggest, that's experience. If a client asks me to get an answer to a problem they have, I get the answer or pass them to someone who can provide them with it. A good accountant and a good IFA can make a very good team.In my experience, an Accountant isn't the best person to be proactively 'creative' when it comes to tax optimisation strategies. They will certainly help to ensure you don't pay any more than you need to but beyond that, I'd question whether they are appropriate for the task. I think that the onus is on you to research possible solutions and ideas and then ask your accountant to implement if they feel it a valid route to go.
That said, when I was looking to change a while back, I asked amongst my network for recommendations and was somewhat surprised at the number of people who responded with the question 'do you want a proper one or a 'handy' one?' - It seems there's many that are happy to operate in the more murkier side of the profession.
Financial Advisors are more likely to have more ingenious ideas as to how to optimise tax - legally, of course.
Countdown said:
I would suggest asking them.
For our small family business we get an itemised invoice which shows things like
- Filing confirmation statement
- Submitting Accounts to companies house
- Completing CT returns
- Administering Payroll
For a small family business, a confirmation statement could be completed and filed on line in less than 10 minutes. Really not worth paying someone to do it. For our small family business we get an itemised invoice which shows things like
- Filing confirmation statement
- Submitting Accounts to companies house
- Completing CT returns
- Administering Payroll
MaxFromage said:
As you suggest, that's experience. If a client asks me to get an answer to a problem they have, I get the answer or pass them to someone who can provide them with it. A good accountant and a good IFA can make a very good team.
I agree. There are lots of areas where I wouldn't be completely au fait about the fine details. But I would be aware of certain schemes etc and could put a client in the way of someone who knows how to make use of a scheme.Most practicioners are, by nature, rather risk averse (me included) so, for professional and ethical reasons, are reluctant to get too "creative" when it comes to tax avoidance schemes.
I've actually told clients to leave if that's the type of advice they want - and they have - and suffered the consequence.
2 GKC said:
For a small family business, a confirmation statement could be completed and filed on line in less than 10 minutes. Really not worth paying someone to do it.
Many clients use their accountant's office as the Registered Office of their company - so notices from Companies House go directly to the accountant rather than the client. A lot of clients prefer it that way.2 GKC said:
Countdown said:
I would suggest asking them.
For our small family business we get an itemised invoice which shows things like
- Filing confirmation statement
- Submitting Accounts to companies house
- Completing CT returns
- Administering Payroll
For a small family business, a confirmation statement could be completed and filed on line in less than 10 minutes. Really not worth paying someone to do it. For our small family business we get an itemised invoice which shows things like
- Filing confirmation statement
- Submitting Accounts to companies house
- Completing CT returns
- Administering Payroll
Eric Mc said:
Many clients use their accountant's office as the Registered Office of their company - so notices from Companies House go directly to the accountant rather than the client. A lot of clients prefer it that way.
Not sure that’s relevant to the point I made. You could still do your own confirmation statement regardless of whose address you’re registered at. I know you’re saying clients don’t want to do it but it really is money for old rope. 
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