New to practice and obviously do not want to overcharge my clients
I was thinking of charging a client £200 for his tax return which includes just some PAYE and one property (client keep proper records). I have also seen some practices charging £65 for a tax return
It will probably will take me max 1 hour. Even £100 seems reasonable on that basis.
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It depends on the records
I normally spend a considerable amount of time sitting with the client explaining what is needed & checking that I have everything that is needed for the tax return, and then if I have to work from the prime records, I charge £275 upwards.
Clients new to self assessment don't always understand that it isn't just the rental income that goes on the tax return.
I would charge between £125
I would charge between £125 and £150 for this and am Midlands based.
"max 1 hour"
Rarely does aTax Return involving a rental property take "max 1 hour" in my experience...
Write to client for informationReceive incomplete information (the latest one I'm dealing with didn't supply Insurance premium or mortgage interest details)Remind client for informationPut figures togetherSend figures to client for approvalRemind client for return of signed tax return (or confirm approval of return)Submit return to HMRCClient has PAYE codes that they expect you to checkHMRC errors on PAYE codes directly as a result of RTI (yes, fact - this has started happenning)Phone HMRC to get PAYE codes put right
I see the above being several hours work in some cases.
Minimum £ 150 suggested fee.
If circumstances permit (client who provides full information in one go - not the typical drip-feed information clients that I see) then in future years offer a reduction.
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I have recently (in last 2 years) moved to a £299+VAT minimum for let property, yes we get a few less than at £199, but not that many less and it means no rushing. I would say its 2+ hours for these by the time you get all the extra questions about the CGT, changes of mortgage every few years the year it is refurbed etc etc etc. £199 always seemed a bit tight for anything other than a real vanilla year. That said if you do get an easy run and you knock 3 of 'em out in an afternoon you feel a bit cheeky!
Don't under estimate
the amount of time it will take you.
Yes the tax return itself maybe an hours work, but what about all the additional work a client will expect you to do in that fee.
Such as explaining to them why the capital element of the mortgage repayment is not an allowable expense (at least 3 times), explaining to them why they have a tax liability or why the loss can't be set off against other income. Then the coversation will drift on to what happens if they sell the property or if you are really lucky they will tell you all about a wonderful thing called a trust and how this will save them tax.
Then no doubt HMRC will make a random adjustment to their tax code which makes no sense to anyone except the member of staff at HMRC with 2 weeks tax training. Which the client will expect you to sort out within the tax return preparation fee.
In my experience a minimum fee for this is type of tax return is £250 + VAT
I would say
At least £250 plus VAT if the records are as good as you say.
Not often I quote less than £200/£250 nowadays. I always used to quote £150 for a straight forward return but as others mention PAYE codes, letters, reminders, etc rarely can I manage that now so £200 is my current minimum
Going forward
The fee you set now will determine the fee you charge in future years, so best not to start too low. When I first started I was doing some straightforward returns for around £125. 7 years later the fee is still under £200.- hardly worth gettting out of bed for.
Fee for tax return
Whatever the market will bear. If you work in central Scotland, do not expect to get London fees.
But do not sell yourself short. I recently quoted a fee of £135 for one property, then had 16 e mails from my client asking why improvements were not being allowed, replacement cutlery not being allowed, etc. It took me several e mails and phone calls to convince him that 10% of rental income every year was better than £6 for replacement cutlery,
Remember, as a qualified accountant, you have annual membership fees, CPD points and other hidden costs. Clients see you merely as someone who sits behind a desk punching in numbers.
I have heard of speed reading, but from some of the replies, I feel I should take lessons in speed accounting.
Guilty
This is one area where I've been guilty in the past of undercharging and as others have said it's difficult to correct quickly without upsetting the client.
PAYE earnings and one property, reasonable records - £250 + vat
On the basis that property element will take around 1-1.5 hours max.
Our recent experience
I had a prospect client that came to see us recently who was in receipt of income for about 6 months as a self employed person (journalist) and 3 months of Maternity Allowance and a few months of PAYE income and we quoted £180-£200+VAT pa (we are based in Middx) & she wasn't interested. Reason? Her previous Chartered Accountant practice (3 partner practice) based in one of the coastal city was charging her £60+VAT only for the whole lot!!! I actually saw the invoice from the practice for the previous year and I was surprised to see how much others do charge.
Only people trying to flog books on the subject!
Tax returns like this are commodity and have a market price regardless of what the guru's might think.
Hi I do struggle with client cost and how much charge him
First of all we agree to 20% of tax return. For:
Preparation of P/L made from scratch no documentation or Bookkeeping record keep.
Invoices and paymentrs received had been in flash drive and documentation all mix up etc.
No record of some purchases.
All Under CIS tax deducted
Total P/L after all costs and tidying up shown that client should receive back of £2899.11 which should be my income of £579.82 no VAT as I'm still under £82.000p/a
Please for some advice as its my first year of trading and working for myself as accountant
Jim100
to be sensible with all our costs to run a small office IRIS alone is £2,000.00 per quarter so a simple ITR must start at £400+vat anything under that not worth all the set up LOE AML etc all files emails to record most taxpayers have no idea how many years its taken us to get to this level and a degree of liability with all clients.
and taxpayers always think that whatever the fee it gives then the right to contact us any time about anything. But i also will do a FOC charity case return if the guy needs help and in a mess and no money completed one took 10 hours FOC, I have done many investigations, that's always good. No more no one wins.
cheers