Help! What's this Sodding Accountant up to?

Bellycaster

3 weeks ago today, I went down to have a free consultation with an Accountant as I'd rather not go through the hell of doing an online return for the first time. It's for my Band earnings which are just over 1.8K for the tax year.

I took all my figures down, my accounts/expenses are piss easy to add up, it could be done on the back of a Fag packet. We negotiated a price of £100 for doing the accounts, although only a verbal agreement, we'd also agreed this on a previous phone call to him while I was seeking out accountants.

So, he worked it all out in front of me, showed me how he could save me some money, which he did, on paper.

He said he'd do the accounts on the Monday of the next working week. I'd not heard from him by the Wednesday of the following week, so I rang him and he said he'd done the accounts, he told me how much I'd owe HMRC over the phone and he also said he would send me all the details through by email, he still hasn't done this and he hasn't phoned me either.

I feel ringing him again would be a waste of time and I don't feel like I want to be nagging him

So, is there a reason for this delay? Is this standard procedure? Has he sent my accounts of to HMRC? Am I just waiting for them to contact me.

I don't want this to drag on and I feel like I am sort of tied into this accountant now and being strung along. This is not good, I just want my fucking taxes doing and I feel like someone is putting me in jeopardy. This is what you get for doing the right thing and trying to be honest.

Can anyone shed any light into what this guy might be up to? Is it the fact that he's doing it cheap and maybe he's having to be crafty or what? Or maybe I'm just not priority enough due to the paltry amount of earnings?

Thanks.

interstellar

maybe hes a bit shit?  i would ask him to either produce the goods or you are off

Bellycaster

interstellar said:

maybe hes a bit shit?  i would ask him to either produce the goods or you are off

He's one of the seniors though. These guys do Restaurants accounts, so they should be doing mine in their sleep - 20 odd gigs and a handful of receipts - not rocket science to them. He'd actually roughly done it in front of me in 10 minutes flat.

I'm new to dealing with these people, it's irritating and chipping away at me.

TTony

Any half decent Accountant should find more than enough expenses to offset £1.8k in earnings to ensure that you pay precisely £0 in tax.

On second thoughts, they dont even need to be half-decent.

heavyrocker

Sounds like a typical accountant to be honest. Is his filing your tax return? The deadline isn’t unti 31 Jan.

Bellycaster

@TTony ;

So what happens now if I phone him and give him a round of Fucks, tell him to get lost, can he demand payment from me. I never signed anything.

I think the amount he estimated was around £180, which is about 10% of the earnings, rather than the 20% standard.

Bellycaster

heavyrocker said:

Sounds like a typical accountant to be honest. Is his filing your tax return? The deadline isn’t unti 31 Jan.

On paper it's Oct 31st I think.

heavyrocker

Bellycaster said:

heavyrocker said:

Sounds like a typical accountant to be honest. Is his filing your tax return? The deadline isn’t unti 31 Jan.

On paper it's Oct 31st I think.

Ah okay. Is it one of those where you give them the numbers, they put them on the form and then send it to you to sign and send to the taxman? 

If you haven’t signed anything I’d tell him to do one. It’s not hard to file a tax return if your income is straightforward. You’ve already done the hard part putting the figures together. File it online yourself and you’ll have unti end of Jan next year.

BloodEagle

Bellycaster said:

@TTony ;

So what happens now if I phone him and give him a round of Fucks, tell him to get lost, can he demand payment from me. I never signed anything.

I think the amount he estimated was around £180, which is about 10% of the earnings, rather than the 20% standard.

If you tell him to get lost now you'll have lost a bit of time and effort but I doubt he'd tru to pursue his fees. I'd stick with him and just say you want it doing by x date. Also, if he can't get it down to 0% or very near on 1.8k you're using the wrong guy,

Bellycaster

heavyrocker said:

Bellycaster said:

heavyrocker said:

Sounds like a typical accountant to be honest. Is his filing your tax return? The deadline isn’t unti 31 Jan.

On paper it's Oct 31st I think.

Ah okay. Is it one of those where you give them the numbers, they put them on the form and then send it to you to sign and send to the taxman? 

If you haven’t signed anything I’d tell him to do one. It’s not hard to file a tax return if your income is straightforward. You’ve already done the hard part putting the figures together. File it online yourself and you’ll have unti end of Jan next year.

I wouldn't know how to save myself any money though @heavyrocker ;, he's supposedly saved me half of what I would normally pay. I don't know what tweaks he made.

spark240

Its true the inline return is  massive headache...just registering and logging in has caused me no end of issues, but...I did do it in the end.  For the amount I would stick with your man....though he should be asking you for any other income, dividends, interest payments and so on I would think ?

Bellycaster

He did ask me about my PAYE etc @spark240 and I took my p60 and all that. Dividends and interest do not apply to me. I may have told him that.

RiftAmps

Maybes he’s waiting for the auth code from HMRC that allows him to file on your behalf?

Axe_meister

With such a small amount of money, you are low priority. I'm surprised you even decker it. Is there not a 10k rule for making profit from hobbies?

Bellycaster

RiftAmps said:

Maybes he’s waiting for the auth code from HMRC that allows him to file on your behalf?

I don't know the procedure? Hopefully it is something that simple.Axe_meister said:

With such a small amount of money, you are low priority. I'm surprised you even decker it. Is there not a 10k rule for making profit from hobbies?

Not sure, but I'd be surprised if HMRC didn't want a slice of 10K of any sort of earnings.

What is "Deckering it"?


I might be low priority, but it's putting my nerves on edge and I want it done and dusted. It's on my mind and bothering me. No wonder people just don't fucking bother declaring.

skunkwerx

Axe_meister said:

With such a small amount of money, you are low priority. I'm surprised you even decker it. Is there not a 10k rule for making profit from hobbies?

Its as clear as mud lol. 
Just reading the hmrc website gives me headaches. 

I had to look recently and from what I can see on the gov website under tax and money, I’ve found this. 

Everyone in a normal average paid employed job gets a tax free allowance of £11,850 per year. 

If like me, your earnings dont exceed that in a tax year, you don’t pay any tax.
I can unfortunately vouch for that.  



I tried being ‘self employed’ for a year on top of my normal job. So I had to do self assessment and hope that hmrc just worked it all out and took some tax off me for both jobs, as my earnings could likely then exceed £11,850. 

Well I never had that problem anyway because lifes shit.. 

But on the same webpage it says ‘you may also have tax free allowances for your first £1000 of income  from self employment, which is your trading allowance’

So I presumed I could earn up to £1000 in this self employed role and not pay any tax on it, even if it pushed my total cumulative income from both self employment and my retail job, over the personal allowance of £11,850 for a tax year.. 

In the end I just had enough.

I wrote to hmrc and said look,

’I’m clearly a fucking unemployable thicko, so obviously I can’t get my head around this confusingness of allowances and tax and big words’ 

I said ‘ i hereby pass this buck to you. This is my declaration, its now on you to ensure I pay my tax correct because I lack the capacity to do so for myself, so read on and just work out shit for me.’

‘I have an employed job, I dont earn enough to pay tax on it though. 
But This year I earned an extra £900 driving ambulances as ‘self employed’, so do I even need to inform you of that?’ 

I can’t remember their reply, but whatever they said it was that basically I didnt need to take action. 

I’m certain they linked me to their website which had a page covering ‘casual income’, which stated how much you can earn extra to your normal job and not need to declare in a year. But I can’t find it for love nor money now, so I guess they’ve changed that. 


One thing I do know is, cover your back. 
My Stepdad recently got hit for near £8k (he’s now semi retired and about 65). 
Hmrc wrote to him demanding the money he ‘owed’ because they’ve been going back and checking stuff. 
Stuff from his days of working for LFB as an active fireman. 
So long ago was his career with them, he still has the wooden handled axe they would carry on duty. Thats how far back the taxman looks when they want to. 

spark240

Bellycaster said:

He did ask me about my PAYE etc @spark240 and I took my p60 and all that. Dividends and interest do not apply to me. I may have told him that.

Just reading the original post.....you are filing a tax return for earhings of £1800 ?

heavyrocker

spark240 said:

Bellycaster said:

He did ask me about my PAYE etc @spark240 and I took my p60 and all that. Dividends and interest do not apply to me. I may have told him that.

Just reading the original post.....you are filing a tax return for earhings of £1800 ?

It’s on top of his PAYE earnings. I think the OP would be best following the advice of the accountant. I’m sure he will get the job done in time.

RedRabbit

RiftAmps said:

Maybes he’s waiting for the auth code from HMRC that allows him to file on your behalf?

No Auth code needed just for filing. As long as he's got the UTR you can file a return.  Unless he's a real maverick (and I'm not discounting that possibility) he won't be filing by paper or online - he'll be doing it through a software solution. 

@Bellycaster if you ring HMRC they will be able to tell you if the return has been filed.  Also, regardless of how much you've paid or how much turnover you have you should have been shown figures etc before anything is filed. If it was right up to the deadline we might file a return without the okay from the client but we will always try to contact them first and, at the very least, email them a copy of what we have filed.

I'd keep pestering him for copies of everything as well as a full breakdown of the figures he's put on the return if he's not prepared an actual set of accounts to go with it (we would do a set of accounts in this instance but mainly because it's the easiest way to get the info onto the software). They are your figures not his.  You have a right to know exactly what is on your return.

If he has filed the return and isn't forthcoming with documents there are a couple of things you can do.

1. Get a copy of the return from HMRC - explain the situation to them and I'm sure they'll be helpful.

2. Fairly drastic but find out which body issues the firm's practicing certificate (most likely ICAEW but there are others) and make it clear to the firm (not just the accountant in question) that you will raise an issue with ICAEW. Size of job and bill do not effect the responsibilities the firm has to you as a client. Might all be moot if he's a one man band with no qualifications but, from what you've said, I don't necessarily get that impression.

If for any reason you aren't happy with what has been filed you can submit an ammended return without penalty.

Happy to help out with anything you get sent if needed.

Bellycaster

Thanks @RedRabbit ;

A very good detailed breakdown there. I would dread to have to ring HMRC though, that can be painful

He does have my UTR as well, I supplied him with that at the time.

57Deluxe

I see where you wen wrong - you should've engaged a Soldering Accountant...