accounting

[helenic]

Nine months after I should have started them, I have finally got stuck into my accounts for the tax year 06-07. It is a bit late, but not stupidly late, as I'm doing the self-assessment thing rather than getting them to calculate it for me, and I don't necessarily need them to collect tax through my tax code. So I'm pretty sure I've got until 31st January. The reason it is a bit late is that I don't actually intend to do the self-assessment thing, I intend to give my accounts to an accountant and pay them to work out how much I owe and what I can claim. My dad recommended a firm earlier this year - he uses them for clergy tax returns, but I said I was self-employed and asked if they could help me and they said yes. I spoke to a pleasant accountant called Kaye a couple of times on the phone about what I needed to give to her, and was going to call her back next once I had it ready. Yesterday, I was ready to do this - until I realised that I had only saved her phone number in my old phone, which has died, and doesn't boot for long enough to load the address book even with a different sim and battery in it. I can't get the number off my dad again as he's in the middle of moving house and is very unlikely to have access to it. And she was in Leicester in any case, so actually if I could find someone in London that would probably be better.

So! Can anyone recommend me an accountant? I've budgeted £100-£150 for fees. I have records of my income and expenditure and a certain amount of receipts, but my record-keeping was not as meticulous last year as it has been since, so there are some gaps, although I think I've been able to fill most of them from memory. I'm struggling a bit to make it balance, though, even before I start trying to work out tax; if I could find someone willing to sit down with my spreadsheet and my bank statements and make it add up first, that would be even better.

I do definitely want a proper accountant to work it out and sign it for me if possible, because I really don't have a head for this kind of thing and the stakes are kind of high if you get it wrong. I also have no idea what I can validly claim as expenses - I've heard lots of different theories from various qualified people, so don't add your own - but basically if I can get someone with some sort of authority to sign it off I would feel much happier, because I've never done this before. Hopefully that's still possible? (I'm looking at the hrmc website now and getting the fear that I actually should have submitted all this by 30th September, but I suspect I'm just being paranoid.)

Comments

[penguin-worship.livejournal.com]

My ex, russell (who you may have met at Joff's gig/my birthday?) has a company to do this. I think his normal rate is arround £125, but if you contact him and mention that you are a friend of mine he might do a discount.

http://pfs.companyworks.co.uk/default.asp

for his website

also has some useful general info on tax returns.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! It looks like I might be able to find somewhere cheaper, but if not this is a good second option. The information is helpful, too, although some of it is also very frightening, such as this:

"if your total tax and NI is more than £500, you have to make payments on account. In short, you are paying for the following year's estimated tax in advance, on the assumption that it is the same as the current year. You have to make 2 payments on accounts, one by the 31st January 2005 (along with the tax for the year), and one by 31st July 2005. Each payment is half the tax for the previous year.

For example, your total tax and NI for the year to 5th April 2007 works out to be £1,000. You therefore have to pay:

£ 1,500 by 31st January 2008
£ 500 by 31st July 2008."

Argh! If this is right, suddenly I need to find half again as much money by 31/01/08 as I thought I did :/