Just had a brief discussion in the office about whether fees should be loaded in January for clients who leave it until the last minute to give us the information to complete or finish their Returns.
Anyone out there that does this? How do you quantify it?
Thanks
Replies (4)
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Evenings and Weekends
We charge overtime rates for those clients that you chase all year, who then bring it in on the 25th January and expect it done by the 31st. If this means working evenings and weekends then they get charged more. But we do write and tell them in every letter that we send chasing the records. We charge ours as a percentage of their fee.
10% and 15%
Info received in December - 10% extra
Info received in January - 15% extra
Clients are told this in the April tax return letter.
My main reason for doing this isn't to make money but to encourage earlier action by the client.
Same here
I also tell them in the letter that they get with the accounts and/or tax return, how much less my fees will be next year if they give me their records earlier.
what we do
We operate fixed fees and this is what we do
1. 10% off if in by 31 July
2. 10% on if handed in in November
3. 15% on if handed in in December
3. 25% on if handed in in January
Again we tell clients this when we send the tax return checklist in April.
Will be increasing Dec and Jan rates for 2015 tax return to 20% and 33% respectively.
Have added on extra to a number of clients already and all accepted the premium. One did query the January add on as being excessive but when we showed them the letter sent they said that it was ok and they must just have missed it but would get there stuff in early this year (which is the whole point of doing it rather than as said above to make money).
Would like to have a December and January that work normal hours.
Would rather have all returns done by say September.