Sole traders - Tax returns

TheWanderer

Striker
Wife changed to sole trader during 18/19 tax year and needs to submit her figures...been to see one accountant and they’re wanting to charge £350+VAT for this, is this the going rate?

She’s not made an awful lot and will be well under the limit of paying tax in this first year so splashing out £350 seems a canny wedge.

Any accountants recommended that come in cheaper than what’s been quoted?
 


She doesn't need an agent to do that surely, tell her to just ring the taxes helpline.
 
Wife changed to sole trader during 18/19 tax year and needs to submit her figures...been to see one accountant and they’re wanting to charge £350+VAT for this, is this the going rate?

She’s not made an awful lot and will be well under the limit of paying tax in this first year so splashing out £350 seems a canny wedge.

Any accountants recommended that come in cheaper than what’s been quoted?
The easier that she makes it for an accountant by summarising expenses etc then the cheaper it will be. Any accountant who just charges a flat fee regardless of the work involved is robbing some clients who are subsidising others. I pay £250 for accounts to be prepared and tax return submitted.
 
Wife changed to sole trader during 18/19 tax year and needs to submit her figures...been to see one accountant and they’re wanting to charge £350+VAT for this, is this the going rate?

She’s not made an awful lot and will be well under the limit of paying tax in this first year so splashing out £350 seems a canny wedge.

Any accountants recommended that come in cheaper than what’s been quoted?
I submit my own returns and it is quite straightforward - I just use a programmed spreadsheet from the Internet that only costs about 30 quid. Obviously there are more sophisticated and expensive packages available.
 
She doesn't need an agent to do that surely, tell her to just ring the taxes helpline.
As we’re both pretty new to self cert it might be best to see what and what she can’t claim for, for example mileage in her car, how much she can claim for working from home etc etc...I do my own but that’s been just money brought in from a property which is a piece of piss.
 
As we’re both pretty new to self cert it might be best to see what and what she can’t claim for, for example mileage in her car, how much she can claim for working from home etc etc...I do my own but that’s been just money brought in from a property which is a piece of piss.
 
If she is under VAT threshold then it is 2 lines on tax return.

Turnover and costs.

Accountant will ensure that these are reasonable and everything is claimed.

If it is very simple, she can do it herself using Government Gateway site.
As we’re both pretty new to self cert it might be best to see what and what she can’t claim for, for example mileage in her car, how much she can claim for working from home etc etc...I do my own but that’s been just money brought in from a property which is a piece of piss.

£300 + vat is steep. IMHO.
 
Last edited:
Wife changed to sole trader during 18/19 tax year and needs to submit her figures...been to see one accountant and they’re wanting to charge £350+VAT for this, is this the going rate?

She’s not made an awful lot and will be well under the limit of paying tax in this first year so splashing out £350 seems a canny wedge.

Any accountants recommended that come in cheaper than what’s been quoted?


It seems a bit steep to me, if they are simple accounts I would expect 250 - 300 tops plus vat for an accountant. There will be a lot of admin for the accountant, money laundering, agent authorisation, internal set ups etc. Its not a horrendous quote.

If the accounts are really simple and the only thing stopping you submitting the tax return yourself is the expenses, I would do it yourself.

Post some of the expenses you are unsure about on here , people will help. PM me them if you want, I should be able to help.

The first year of accounts will be easy enough, will just be assessed on profits up to 5 April 2019.
 
As we’re both pretty new to self cert it might be best to see what and what she can’t claim for, for example mileage in her car, how much she can claim for working from home etc etc...I do my own but that’s been just money brought in from a property which is a piece of piss.

I do my own with a spreadsheet I made. It's got a tab for each month and a summary at the end (known as a balance sheet). I've got money coming in and out on one half of each page and mileage on the other half. They add themselves up as I go along, so at any time I can glance at the last page and see my gross and net profits. I just copy the final numbers over into my tax return when I need to do it.

I also keep a seperate spreadsheet where I jot down all the calls I've done in a day. You can pick any day and ask why did I do x miles that day, and I can check the other spreadsheet and say I went to ...... and did ......... I also use that to keep track of what I've been paid for as everything added in red text, then I change it to black when I've been paid.

You can claim 45p a mile for up to 10,000 miles, then it drops to 25p a mile. They must be purely business miles, hence keeping the second spreadsheet. If I went out for the day and did a route of several calls, I can claim the whole amount of mileage for the round trip. If I went and did some calls, then went and did some shopping and called in to see my Mam, I can only claim for the miles I did when I was actually working.

I put £10 a month through for use of the room in the house. That's to cover heating, lighting, electric etc. HMRC gave me that figure but I don't know how they arrive at it. Make sure the room is split for business and personal use. If my office was a sole business office and not used for personal reasons, there could be capital gains tax pay on just that room if I moved house as I'm selling my "business premises." I've got a large utility room, so I've got my desk along one wall and a bench with the washer and dryer under on the other wall, so it's clearly a mixed use room.

I put half my mobile bill through as I use that half for business and half for posting shite on here :lol:

If she's printing things, you can claim Xp per sheet but I can't remember what that value is as I hardly ever print anything now as I use PDF's etc., on my phone.

You can put anything she buys purely for the business through as an expense but get it on a separate receipt to make it easier. Eg: I pick up stationery items when I'm doing my grocery shopping, but I pay for them separately. I've got a folder that I drop paper receipts in.

I've never been audited but it's good practice to think if an auditor looked at this, would they understand it.

HMRC do various courses to help. They're free and really useful. Have a look on here:

If it's simple and you think you can manage it, you might as well do it yourself and save the accounts fee.
 
as others have said - register on the govt gateway - then if its relatively straightforward

costs / expenses
turnover

it will work out the tax due or owed

if it is more complex then fair enough use an accountant , but loads of people now do their own online tax returns
 

Back
Top