Worked for Inland Revenue for 11 years in the 70s and 80s before I saw the light!
Progressed from working for medium sized firms of accountants to starting my own practice in 1996 and havent looked back since, with hubby joining me in partnership 7 years later.
One SA103 for each accounting period. Latest period you are filing should be on the main page, the other(s) included as an attachment. Balance sheet should match the P&L - though I never understand why anyone files one.
I saw something the other day that said HMRC will allow a single set of accounts for the extended a/p, even if more than 18 months, for 2023/2024.
Along with most of the other respondents, I got the majority of my clients from recommendations, which does take time so I also took on subcontract work in the early years. Advertising in newspapers is costly and rarely works - people prefer a recommendation before handing over personal information to a stranger. I've had my business for 28 years and some clients have been with me since the start, so I must have got it right!
You do need to consider pricing carefully. I started out too cheap and it is much harder to increase fees to a reasonable price later. I also found a few clients would use my services for a year or two then decide to take over the returns themselves as I have always believed in the client understanding how the figures in the accounts and on the return have been put together. Whilst that was annoying, how can you ask someone to declare that a return is correct if they don't understand the contents?
We could I think get the bank interest taken out of the code and put client back into self assessment. But what's the point? HMRC gets it right without our doing anything. And if we're doing our best for the client we'll keep our fees down by doing as little as possible.
I wish! The banks are so slow at sending HMRC the interest information (or perhaps HMRC are slow dealing with it) that I have one client who received multiple simple assessments, being revised every time they received new details from the banks. They also amended her tax codes every time. She was so confused about what was due and when that we put her back into SA and I charge her a nominal fee for doing the returns, so she knows exactly what to pay.
I have had my own practice since 1996 (yes, start of SA!) and have had many cards and letters of thanks from my clients over the years, including flowers from a few, but there will always been a small number who are not grateful for one reason or another.
I would simply explain that it is simply not possible for you to prepare the accounts in January due to the looming deadline but that you will be happy (?) to do so once the tax returns are all out of the way.
In the past, with one exception, I have insisted that directors cannot take self employed fees from their own companies. The exception was a client who did take a small fee for their work as a director but as he also had a proper self-employed business involving multiple sources and customers, I allowed the work done for the company to be treated as consultancy fees. It was never challenged.
No - it shows how the law relating to the computation of property business profits works by applying the trading income rules to that computation but subject to limiting the application to the specific trading rules there set out. One of the trading rules that does apply is s 34 ITTOIA (wholly and exclusively/unconnected losses), and s 34(2) provides for dual purpose expenditure.
Since the property pages in the return have a box for private use (which I certainly fill in in relation to my FHL income) it seems that HMRC accept that the expenses can be apportioned.
That's what I would suggest. I use that box for a client with an overseas property, where they stay for part of the year. Anything not specific to the letting activity gets apportioned based on the number of weeks used by the client.
It's easy (and perhaps valid) to blame solicitors for not advising their clients about the tax. However, that was eminently predictable from the day that the early filing of such returns was introduced. I contacted all of my landlord clients at the time to warn them of this, and telling them to contact me whenever they were thinking of selling a property.
Sooner or later I'll find that one will forget but it's not happened so far, and of course if they try to blame me I can point to the relevant email.
My answers
I saw something the other day that said HMRC will allow a single set of accounts for the extended a/p, even if more than 18 months, for 2023/2024.
Along with most of the other respondents, I got the majority of my clients from recommendations, which does take time so I also took on subcontract work in the early years. Advertising in newspapers is costly and rarely works - people prefer a recommendation before handing over personal information to a stranger. I've had my business for 28 years and some clients have been with me since the start, so I must have got it right!
You do need to consider pricing carefully. I started out too cheap and it is much harder to increase fees to a reasonable price later. I also found a few clients would use my services for a year or two then decide to take over the returns themselves as I have always believed in the client understanding how the figures in the accounts and on the return have been put together. Whilst that was annoying, how can you ask someone to declare that a return is correct if they don't understand the contents?
I wish! The banks are so slow at sending HMRC the interest information (or perhaps HMRC are slow dealing with it) that I have one client who received multiple simple assessments, being revised every time they received new details from the banks. They also amended her tax codes every time. She was so confused about what was due and when that we put her back into SA and I charge her a nominal fee for doing the returns, so she knows exactly what to pay.
I have had my own practice since 1996 (yes, start of SA!) and have had many cards and letters of thanks from my clients over the years, including flowers from a few, but there will always been a small number who are not grateful for one reason or another.
I would simply explain that it is simply not possible for you to prepare the accounts in January due to the looming deadline but that you will be happy (?) to do so once the tax returns are all out of the way.
In the past, with one exception, I have insisted that directors cannot take self employed fees from their own companies. The exception was a client who did take a small fee for their work as a director but as he also had a proper self-employed business involving multiple sources and customers, I allowed the work done for the company to be treated as consultancy fees. It was never challenged.
I think that happens when they are either no longer in SA or if they have no PAYE income, so it hasn't been coded.
Mallalieu v Drummond! Still relevant today.
That's what I would suggest. I use that box for a client with an overseas property, where they stay for part of the year. Anything not specific to the letting activity gets apportioned based on the number of weeks used by the client.
This sounds exactly like the situation put to me by a former client. I disagreed and she went elsewhere. I wonder if it is the same client!
Ditto!