Also bear in mind that in the SAAS era it's so easy to switch products that there's absolutely no reason to feel like you're being held to ransom.
Unless you are with Iris who tell you their vast price increase (every year, way more than inflation from my experience) a month before your payment is due, but you have to give 3 months notice to quit, so you have no choice but to pay the increased charges.
It isn't just about not being a nerd, it is about not being able to identify yourself to HMRC too. I have a client who is in a care home. So they have no bills, no passport nor driving licence. The system doesn't allow them to enter credit file information, I would presume because the only information on there will be a couple of bank accounts. I am registered as agent, but it seems that there is no way to get access to their IRV account
I had one last tax year where I suddenly got a copy of a tax calculation (return filed 6 days before the deadline) for after chasing him for months. It was clearly wrong (unless he stopped renting his property and suddenly became self employed), so I emailed him to tell him and he finally replied with: "a good friend of mine has recently started working as an account so I wanted to support him, so my apologies for not informing you, I just didn't realise it was something I needed to do."
Firstly, as you said, just rude not to tell me.
Secondly, his good friend is obviously not a good accountant! No professional courtesy letter, no handover info request, tax return incorrect.
I just sent him an email back saying it would have been common courtesy to let me know he didn't want me to do his return and perhaps he could have let me know by a simple reply to my first chasing email, my second, or my third, or by answering the phone when I called him!
My experience is:
Quickbooks:
To quote from one of my ceased accounts: "You have access to data and reporting until one year. You can resubscribe to pick up where you left off if you decide to come back."
So, you can access the data read-only for 12 months after the subscription ends (and i have done that in the past), after that I have been told that they store the data for 6 years, but then it looks like you have to subscribe again to get access (but if you resubscribe through your accountant account, if you resubscribe for a day and then unsubscribe when you have what you need, it should only charge you for the day). It is just a matter of clicking a button to resubscribe.
Xero: I think lost access as soon as the subscription was cancelled for the client that I transferred to QB and you have to resubscribe if you want any access. Looking at the account on Xero now, I cannot see an easy way to resubscribe and when I did need to get into the account, I messaged Xero asking them how I could access it and never got a reply (anyone else find Xero's lack of live support irritating?) - luckily I managed to piece together the information from what I downloaded before we cancelled the subscription.
I got off lightly then - only a 15% increase for me (from £600 to £690pa).
You can tell that money-grabbing Iris have their feet firmly under the table now, so I expect this level of increase year on year.
The increase annoys me because their justification is bound to be the increase in functionality with the practice management elements - I just want/originally subscribed for basic accounts production software, not all singing, all dancing practice management - if I wanted that I would have chosen software that did that in the first place, so I begrudge paying extra for the functionality that I did not ask for and do not need.
I will 'third' that - they never repay unless you phone them. Then they claim that something must have gone wrong with the system in your one case... every time!
I am just going with the very clear guidance I received from HMRC (and I made sure that I took a print of the chat conversation) and deferring the EA to claim the NI. If HMRC later complain, they can't claim careless error since I followed their advice.
Just had a webchat with HMRC and they said: "I can confirm you can claim Employment Allowance at any time during the tax year.You can make a claim at any time during the tax year as long as your business or charity has employer Class 1 NICs liabilities and is eligible to claim the Employment Allowance. " I followed that up with the specific question if it was acceptable to not claim in April so we could claim the NI on the CJRS in April and they said yes.
My answers
Try looking them up here: https://vat-search.co.uk/search
Unless you are with Iris who tell you their vast price increase (every year, way more than inflation from my experience) a month before your payment is due, but you have to give 3 months notice to quit, so you have no choice but to pay the increased charges.
It isn't just about not being a nerd, it is about not being able to identify yourself to HMRC too. I have a client who is in a care home. So they have no bills, no passport nor driving licence. The system doesn't allow them to enter credit file information, I would presume because the only information on there will be a couple of bank accounts. I am registered as agent, but it seems that there is no way to get access to their IRV account
I had one last tax year where I suddenly got a copy of a tax calculation (return filed 6 days before the deadline) for after chasing him for months. It was clearly wrong (unless he stopped renting his property and suddenly became self employed), so I emailed him to tell him and he finally replied with: "a good friend of mine has recently started working as an account so I wanted to support him, so my apologies for not informing you, I just didn't realise it was something I needed to do."
Firstly, as you said, just rude not to tell me.
Secondly, his good friend is obviously not a good accountant! No professional courtesy letter, no handover info request, tax return incorrect.
I just sent him an email back saying it would have been common courtesy to let me know he didn't want me to do his return and perhaps he could have let me know by a simple reply to my first chasing email, my second, or my third, or by answering the phone when I called him!
My experience is:
Quickbooks:
To quote from one of my ceased accounts: "You have access to data and reporting until one year. You can resubscribe to pick up where you left off if you decide to come back."
So, you can access the data read-only for 12 months after the subscription ends (and i have done that in the past), after that I have been told that they store the data for 6 years, but then it looks like you have to subscribe again to get access (but if you resubscribe through your accountant account, if you resubscribe for a day and then unsubscribe when you have what you need, it should only charge you for the day). It is just a matter of clicking a button to resubscribe.
Xero: I think lost access as soon as the subscription was cancelled for the client that I transferred to QB and you have to resubscribe if you want any access. Looking at the account on Xero now, I cannot see an easy way to resubscribe and when I did need to get into the account, I messaged Xero asking them how I could access it and never got a reply (anyone else find Xero's lack of live support irritating?) - luckily I managed to piece together the information from what I downloaded before we cancelled the subscription.
Another reason to avoid Xero for me!!
My understanding is that:
Para 5 says no return due if the SA return is filed within the deadline period (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/1/schedule/2/part/1/crossheadi...).
Para 6 says if no return due, no tax due (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/1/schedule/2/part/1/crossheadi...)
I got off lightly then - only a 15% increase for me (from £600 to £690pa).
You can tell that money-grabbing Iris have their feet firmly under the table now, so I expect this level of increase year on year.
The increase annoys me because their justification is bound to be the increase in functionality with the practice management elements - I just want/originally subscribed for basic accounts production software, not all singing, all dancing practice management - if I wanted that I would have chosen software that did that in the first place, so I begrudge paying extra for the functionality that I did not ask for and do not need.
I will 'third' that - they never repay unless you phone them. Then they claim that something must have gone wrong with the system in your one case... every time!
I am just going with the very clear guidance I received from HMRC (and I made sure that I took a print of the chat conversation) and deferring the EA to claim the NI. If HMRC later complain, they can't claim careless error since I followed their advice.
Just had a webchat with HMRC and they said: "I can confirm you can claim Employment Allowance at any time during the tax year.You can make a claim at any time during the tax year as long as your business or charity has employer Class 1 NICs liabilities and is eligible to claim the Employment Allowance. " I followed that up with the specific question if it was acceptable to not claim in April so we could claim the NI on the CJRS in April and they said yes.