Hi
its been my third year as a contractor. I am preparing my own accounts on excel but then I have to pay an accountant to convert it to ixbrl and submit. I put in all the work to prepare accounts and then he charges me £300 just to convert and submit.
Is there any way where I can avoid that? with or without Ixbrl?
with ixbrl:
easy to use software
cheaper than £300 that I pay the accountant
will do the job
without ixbrl:
can I post the accounts in paper?
replies will be highly appreciated.
Replies (9)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
Ouch
You are about to come in for loads of stick. Be ready.
You must use ixbrl. If you search the site you will find there are diy & cheaper options - but not that much cheaper. It will also be time intensive as you seek to understand the steps you must follow to get your information to HMRC. I do not know what rate you charge out at but you may end up working for longer than the saving is worthwhile.
My advice? Pay £300 and have done.
Companies House
If we're just talking about Companies House, yes, you can.
You need to register for webfiling and submit over t'interweb. Or you can send them in by post. The latter is a bit more risky if there's an error or you're close to the filing deadline.
Cheap as chips at £0.00 a time.
HMRC - you need the iXBRL nonsense but you can file your own if you want. Not so straightforward with loads of opportunities to get it wrong and pay the penalties. Why don't you just pay the £300 and sleep at night ?
I do like the way that you dismiss the work your accountant does as trivial and not worth the very modest £300 fee.
What do you do for your wedge ? Value for money ?
DIY
I had an IT contractor, who thought he new it all, show me his excel accounts.
It nicely calculated the VAT element of any income and expenditure.
Unfortunately, when he made any payments for his wages, payroll liabilites, VAT and dividends he treated them as VATable items.
I made a good few pounds sorting that mess out!
Give your paperwork to the accountant.
No value
it just hurts to pay £300 to him after all the hours I have put in every week to keep up to date.
So you're saying he does nothing for you and has no expertise ?
If there's no value to his fee, off you go on your own.
What's the problem ?
Don't think he signs it and takes the liability for your work - he doesn't. He just submits it as yours and there is absolutely NO comeback on him if your accounts are gibberish. The taxpayer is the one and only person that HMRC or CH will blame, there will be no comeback on the accountant. To be honest, your "accountant" sounds like a cowboy who is ripping you off. By all means sign up for webfiling, then you can stick your gibberish into a form and cut out the middle man.
webfiling
It should also be a piece of cake now that webfiling does not involve all that trust settings business any more!
Companies House or HMRC?
It should also be a piece of cake now that webfiling does not involve all that trust settings business any more!
Trust settings ?
Are we thinking HMRC here ?
The OP specifically says Companies House.
I am sure you can work it out yourself by using the internet as you do not feel his services are worth £300. Why should he not charge you the £300 it is called market value his software and his knowledge. Use google and see if you can find someone cheaper. However I wonder would you feel the same if your customers treated you the same. As Tim has said he is not taking liability for your accounts. No accountant does. It is the clients responsibility.