Fees for Landlord accounts and tax return

Reasonable fee or not?

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Hi all

I have quoted a potential client £200 for producing a set of landlord accounts and self-assessment tax return for one property. Would this be reasonable or too cheap/expensive? How do others charge when the number of properties increase? Appreciate everyone has different methods of determining their worth, but wanted a reasonableness check. 

Replies (26)

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By Matrix
28th Jan 2019 18:53

That is pretty low for any tax return. Is it due this week?

I would not necessarily charge more per property if the records were pretty good, would charge more if different sources of income.

If you can still make money on it then it works for you.

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Replying to Matrix:
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By rnt1990
28th Jan 2019 19:34

What would be more reasonable?

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By Tim Vane
28th Jan 2019 19:27

Bargain

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By rnt1990
28th Jan 2019 19:34

What's a more reasonable fee?

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By Wanderer
28th Jan 2019 19:34

I'd say you are too cheap. Would probably charge in the region of £350 + VAT.

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By rnt1990
28th Jan 2019 19:45

How would you split that for the accounts and tax return approximately?

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Replying to rnt1990:
Red Leader
By Red Leader
28th Jan 2019 20:06

Define "landlord accounts".

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By rnt1990
28th Jan 2019 20:14

income/expenses for property rental.

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By Wanderer
28th Jan 2019 20:07

I wouldn't. Just produce the figures and put them on the property pages.

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By Accountant A
28th Jan 2019 20:21

I think the question I would ask is how did you arrive at the figure you have quoted.

If you are given half decent records for a single property, pulling together the SATR figures is a pretty trivial task. How complex are the client's other income tax affairs? How 'needy' is the client likely to be in terms of phone calls, emails, etc., throughout the process?

Presumably you are going to be dealing with assessments, tax payments, maybe payments on account, notices of coding , etc.? If so, that time all adds up over the months. And you have new client 'set up' costs which have to be factored in somewhere.

I'm not in practice but thinking about the above, £200 doesn't seem like a lot.

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Replying to Accountant A:
By penelope pitstop
01st Feb 2019 01:56

I think if you charge £100 you will find you will kill yourself doing it. It's all the add-ons which waste time. AML check, Engagement letter, 64-8, explaining payments on account to client (and sometimes HMRC employees), the list is endless.

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By andy.partridge
28th Jan 2019 20:26

It’s going to depend on the quality of the client, the quality of the record keeping, the completeness of the paperwork, the client’s understanding, the quality and responsiveness of answers to questions you put to them.

Isn’t it?

That said if you are both happy with £200, that’s fine. It’s not for anyone to interfere.

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paddle steamer
By DJKL
28th Jan 2019 21:26

I just did two for nothing on Sunday, including a house visit.

A P60 each, couple of employment expense claims on one , basic excel sheet re income and costs and calculated interest from building society statements running to December each year by apportionment.

All in, including lots of baby talk as my wife was with me meeting our first Great Nephew (12 weeks old) for first time, and getting my three year old Great Niece to talk to us (she preferred hiding behind the curtains), in and out in 1.5 hours, and that included revising 2016/2017 re police federation costs re that year (not previously claimed) and a cup of tea.

So frankly £200 if existing client with no client take on stuff to do would be fine, but at best expect a Christmas card come December.

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By rnt1990
28th Jan 2019 21:37

There's always one.

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Replying to rnt1990:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
28th Jan 2019 23:23

I thought my post did impart some info, for existing client, so limited front end compliance costs, £200 for 1.5 hours did not look that bad, £133 per hour.

Obviously if a new off the street, with set up, cost needs to absorb time re MLR etc, but once ongoing client tax software brings forward prior year standing data so time to complete each year is very limited, to say the least.

Same with clients with say steady share list, no changes, a one button refresh press on TaxCalc updates the dividends.

I have one retired client (used to act for his business) with state/other pension, a few dividends as mentioned, and two bank interest figures, his took 30 minutes including printing , signing and submission- I did it as he waited.

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Logo
By marks
28th Jan 2019 22:43

We charge £240 + VAT for first property and then £60 + VAT for each additional property (so if say 5 properties that would be £480 + VAT) for the property accounts.

For tax return think we start at £144 + VAT and each additional source of income is priced separately.

So if was just one property and no other source of income would be £384 + VAT ( £240 + £144).

However we price monthly so would be £20 + VAT for the property and £12 + VAT for the tax return so £32 + VAT per month all in (seems cheaper than £384 + VAT when you price it that way)

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Replying to marks:
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By rnt1990
28th Jan 2019 22:56

Thanks Mark for the helpful response, much appreciated!

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Replying to marks:
ALISK
By atleastisoundknowledgable...
29th Jan 2019 09:04

Use GoProposal by any chance?

I would typical charge £150 for the tax return +£50 per property, with them completing an Excel spreadsheet for the I&E.

I say “typically” ... so many factors

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Replying to atleastisoundknowledgable...:
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By Mr_awol
30th Jan 2019 11:54

Why the hell anyone would [***] about with monthly costs for something like this is beyond me (apart from, of course, one common 'perk' of monthly charges, but any time I mention that, people get defensive).

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Red Leader
By Red Leader
29th Jan 2019 10:15

Typically £300+VAT, possibly more.

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
29th Jan 2019 12:07

I wouldnt do a set of accounts for rental income just and an I & E account on Excel.

Depends on where you are based, I charge from £150 for core return and £75 each property which I think is cheap as landlords tend to be the ones who leave their tax affairs until January as there is nothing in them.!!!!

As said above though it depends on how much fannying about you have to do explaining to him about interest relief becoming removed etc.

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By meadowsaw227
29th Jan 2019 12:12

Just lost a long standing client with property rental to a city centre firm of Accountants who have told him they will match my fee of £195+ vat.
Presumably they have better tea and biscuits !

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Replying to meadowsaw227:
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By rnt1990
29th Jan 2019 12:29

!Wasn't me, promise

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By andy.partridge
29th Jan 2019 12:34

Do they realise the firm might double the fee next year?

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By Kaylee100
30th Jan 2019 18:44

Our vary as how complicated is the personal part of the return? How many let properties and how good are the records?

Mine are minimum £150 plus VAT but Ive quite a few higher and they either have lots of property or a more complicated personal return.

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By Crouchy
01st Feb 2019 09:24

Depends whats involved

If the client is using a letting agent, turns up with 12 monthly statements and their mortgage statement, then really work should be minimal

I often find that if these types of clients are disorganised and are providing records in an incomplete state, they drag on and offer a poor fee recovery

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