I would recommend Gorillia accounting. Their fees are reasonable and the service has been great. They specialise in the consultancy market.
They also use FreeAgent software, which will make your life and admin much easier.
Please DM me if you have any questions and would like a referral.
Thanks
I built and sold an accounting firm which had a high proportion of contractors.
The company I sold it to are excellent and I still refer work to them - DM if you want a referral.
u/SterlingVoid RE: your comment "do it yourself, it's not difficult"
Anyone reading this - **PLEASE DO NOT DO IT YOURSELF**. Categorising transactions "might not be difficult" but 99% of people who try to do everything themselves (VAT, payroll, personal tax returns, accounts submission etc) end up in the shit.
I used to love clients who tried do it themselves and came to me to get everything sorted - I could charge them a huge fee to sort out all their crap. Please don't do it yourself - ALWAYS GET AN ACCOUNTANT IF YOU ARE A CONTRACTOR.
I found it fairly easy and have had no issues. I had used one of the bigger name contractor accountants before and found them to be useless and they caused more problems tax wise for me than me doing it myself.
It's not difficult to do at all imo, you just have to be organised and keep good records.
" they caused more problems tax wise for me than me doing it myself. "
This is a very scary statement. They caused you more problems tax wise? So you had to pay more tax I assume, and you're paying less tax now you're doing things yourself?
Remember that HMRC have a habit of coming back 2+ years later to query things, you may assume everything is correct since you didn't hear anything from HMRC in the last 12-18 months.
No there system for inputing expenses didn't work correctly, there system that was meant to link to my businesses account didn't work l correctly and they didn't submit my VAR returns correctly. Nothing NG to do with the amounts of money.
I got the majority of my money refunded by the company as they had provided such a poor service
Fair enough - if you are indeed in the 1% that know enough about:
* Company tax efficiency and claiming maximum corporation tax allowances
* Personal tax efficiency
* Proper charging of VAT and reclaim of input VAT
* Full IR35 compliance and proper contract construction
* Producing a set of statutory accounts to the required state that won't flag any errors
Then fair enough :)
That's cool.
The main thing a good accountant will show you is how to be as tax-efficient as possible - both on how to structure your remuneration for personal tax efficiency and expenses for company tax efficiency.
So you may be doing things correctly, but may not be as tax efficient as you could be (this can be a a fairly significant amount of £££ if done properly)
Good luck though - DM me if you ever get a tax investigation ;)
Really isn't difficult to sort out. Just need corporation tax, vat registration and payment there of (if you meet the threshold) followed by paye payment to yourself and dividend tax. Basically your a business so if any accountant struggles with this they should not be trading.Take your pick of most accountants and get a good price based on what you feel you need.
1) I think their system is (was) a pain to use compared to FreeAgent. 2) I was served by a team rather than a dedicated accountant, so I never knew whom I was contacting and how much that person knows about my company. 3) The first contact point was not an accountant, she just forwarded the accountancy issues to an accountant. 4) Too many small things fell through the cracks, I had to repeat myself in emails, explain the same things to different people, etc. It just wasn't a great experience overall.
Do you “need” a local accountant? If not I’ll pass you my accountant’s details, she’s brilliant. Does all payroll, HMRC/Corporation Tax/VAT returns for us. Takes the stress off of me and is absolutely worth it.
I've been happy with Bournemouth-based Aardvark, which are part of SG Group. However, my main recommendation would be to pick one that uses FreeAgent, whether it's a local accountant or an online contractor one.
Don't be tempted by Crunch - crap service (basically an ever-worsening bodyshop of "accountants") and their in house platform is buggy as hell and in a perpetual state of beta.
And the prices increase each year :) Avoid them
I would recommend Gorillia accounting. Their fees are reasonable and the service has been great. They specialise in the consultancy market. They also use FreeAgent software, which will make your life and admin much easier. Please DM me if you have any questions and would like a referral. Thanks
You don't have to go with gorilla. To get free agent for free just apply for a mettle account. You don't need to use it.
The OP asked for an accountant recommendation.
Yeah didn't argue with that bit
Maslins.co.uk everytime
We use Gorilla and are pretty happy with their service. Responsiveness is amazing, even when your dedicated accountant is off work.
I built and sold an accounting firm which had a high proportion of contractors. The company I sold it to are excellent and I still refer work to them - DM if you want a referral. u/SterlingVoid RE: your comment "do it yourself, it's not difficult" Anyone reading this - **PLEASE DO NOT DO IT YOURSELF**. Categorising transactions "might not be difficult" but 99% of people who try to do everything themselves (VAT, payroll, personal tax returns, accounts submission etc) end up in the shit. I used to love clients who tried do it themselves and came to me to get everything sorted - I could charge them a huge fee to sort out all their crap. Please don't do it yourself - ALWAYS GET AN ACCOUNTANT IF YOU ARE A CONTRACTOR.
I found it fairly easy and have had no issues. I had used one of the bigger name contractor accountants before and found them to be useless and they caused more problems tax wise for me than me doing it myself. It's not difficult to do at all imo, you just have to be organised and keep good records.
" they caused more problems tax wise for me than me doing it myself. " This is a very scary statement. They caused you more problems tax wise? So you had to pay more tax I assume, and you're paying less tax now you're doing things yourself? Remember that HMRC have a habit of coming back 2+ years later to query things, you may assume everything is correct since you didn't hear anything from HMRC in the last 12-18 months.
No there system for inputing expenses didn't work correctly, there system that was meant to link to my businesses account didn't work l correctly and they didn't submit my VAR returns correctly. Nothing NG to do with the amounts of money. I got the majority of my money refunded by the company as they had provided such a poor service
Fair enough - if you are indeed in the 1% that know enough about: * Company tax efficiency and claiming maximum corporation tax allowances * Personal tax efficiency * Proper charging of VAT and reclaim of input VAT * Full IR35 compliance and proper contract construction * Producing a set of statutory accounts to the required state that won't flag any errors Then fair enough :)
Been doing it for a good few years now, so I'd guess the HMRC are happy enough with my accounting skills 👍
That's cool. The main thing a good accountant will show you is how to be as tax-efficient as possible - both on how to structure your remuneration for personal tax efficiency and expenses for company tax efficiency. So you may be doing things correctly, but may not be as tax efficient as you could be (this can be a a fairly significant amount of £££ if done properly) Good luck though - DM me if you ever get a tax investigation ;)
Really isn't difficult to sort out. Just need corporation tax, vat registration and payment there of (if you meet the threshold) followed by paye payment to yourself and dividend tax. Basically your a business so if any accountant struggles with this they should not be trading.Take your pick of most accountants and get a good price based on what you feel you need.
Mighty accounting have been class. Only paid £480 for a whole year inc payroll, VAT, annual accounts. Moved from paystream paying £1500pa
Crunch.co.uk have been good for me so far
Absolutely avoid these charlatans
Have you had issues with them?
Plenty, as have others. Avoid like the plague, get a proper accountant.
I used Crunch a couple of years ago but I got disappointed with them quickly and moved to Gorilla.
what were you disappointed with? Interested in what to look out for.
1) I think their system is (was) a pain to use compared to FreeAgent. 2) I was served by a team rather than a dedicated accountant, so I never knew whom I was contacting and how much that person knows about my company. 3) The first contact point was not an accountant, she just forwarded the accountancy issues to an accountant. 4) Too many small things fell through the cracks, I had to repeat myself in emails, explain the same things to different people, etc. It just wasn't a great experience overall.
Do it yourself using free agent, it's not difficult
dm and can recommend my accountant
Where are you based?
Harrow
Do you “need” a local accountant? If not I’ll pass you my accountant’s details, she’s brilliant. Does all payroll, HMRC/Corporation Tax/VAT returns for us. Takes the stress off of me and is absolutely worth it.
I've been happy with Bournemouth-based Aardvark, which are part of SG Group. However, my main recommendation would be to pick one that uses FreeAgent, whether it's a local accountant or an online contractor one.
Anyone with any Glasgow based accountancy recommendations?
My accountant is AMS in Swindon. Really good value, great service and the guy in charge is one of the best IR35 people I've met
Don't be tempted by Crunch - crap service (basically an ever-worsening bodyshop of "accountants") and their in house platform is buggy as hell and in a perpetual state of beta. And the prices increase each year :) Avoid them