thebears

2 questions for those self employed or working for themselves:

What range of charges are you paying for accounting related services?

and

Why are you not doing a majority of it yourself?

Teliko21

My boyfriend is self employed and he does do the majority of the accounting himself but his accountant doesn't charge him for checking it over and making suggestions

thebears

Just spent the morning with a neighbour who has been charged $7000 a year for the past 5 years to have his accounts done. He is now going to do them himself after I showed him.

It took us less than 4 hours to complete his last 12 months and set him up ongoing for real time accounts. (Without any fancy accounting package).

Teliko21

Ummmmm.... that sounds very much like extortion to me

kimi

$7000 a year!!! did he never question the amount??

I do all our accounts, and our accountant checks it over at the end of the year and charges us about $300 for that and they also answer any questions during the year and do not charge for that.

K

thebears

The fee was calculated based on a percentage of turnover and agreed during a golf game. After our discussion today I dont think they will be playing golf together for the foreseeable future.

The business operations are also not just in Melbourne but covered Zurich, Boston, Singapore and Hong Kong. The previous system of accounting was long winded and basically just a waste of time.

bramptonbrian

1) $88.00 for the BAS 1/4 return last time.
2) I do

JaneandJim

$2000 a year for my and Jim's tax return and the company tax return.

I do all the BAS and activity sheet reporting myself, as well as payroll and expenses. Its not hard and doesn't take very long.

Jane

NickyC

I'm currently doing four tax returns each year - three personal returns for myself, husband and son, plus my company return. It probably takes me about a day in total to do them all. The personal returns are now done online so not much hassle for them.

I also do BAS returns monthly using the ATO's (free) e-record software. Takes literally 5 minutes a month.

Haven't paid a cent to any accountant for a few years now.

JaneandJim

I do a BAS quarterly and it takes me a lot longer than 5 minutes. I have to separate capital and non-capital expenditure which takes me a little while and I arrange to pay the GST by internet banking, so it probably takes a couple of hours. The monthly activity statements take seconds because I always lodge a nil statement.

It took me half a day just to gather the information to give to the accountant for the tax returns.

Do you want to fly up here and do mine? I'll pay for your flight, it would be cheaper than the accountants fees.

Jane

NickyC

Hmmm. Might stick to my own, thanks!

My BAS returns are really straightforward. I just key it all into e-record and read off the totals for the return. Mind you, I'm an IT contractor and only ever have one cheque in and around half a dozen out each month, so it's not exactly a full-on, busy business. The year-end Company tax returns take a tad longer than five minutes - probably around half a day.

I don't enjoy doing the personal Tax returns, now I've somehow been lumbered with doing three of them. Adding up the zillions of chemist's and doctor's receipts always puts me in a bad mood. And it's almost that time of year again

JaneandJim

You're super-efficient. I'm just about to pay Jim's tax bill for the 2004/2006 tax year. This years won't be done until March next year. That's one good thing about using an accountant, you have more time to do your returns.

Jim is also an IT contractor and he fortunately brought his contract with him from the UK, which means I don't need to work. I do all his book-keeping, though, so he can concentrate on earning the pennies.

Jane

bru

As an Accountant waiting to emigrate to Perth, I always advice anyone to ALWAYS go for an Accountant. It’s a crime if you do it by yourself.

cresta57

I do the invoicing and Deb does the BAS [once a month]. It takes her about half an hour as we have loads of purchases each month.
As for our company tax returns I've not done one yet, very lax I know but I need another bag of round-to-its .
I can't see the fuss about paying accountants, the bill is fully tax deductible so all your doing is giving money you'd have given the ATO to an accountant. I paid an accountant in the U.K and he charged me £200 per annum I usually got a rebate of around 2 1/2 K my oppo did his himself as he refused to pay an accountant he used to get about a grand back both of us were the same tax code and in a 50/50 split partnership. I could never understand the mentality of refusing to pay a tax deductible £200 and getting £1500 less back from the tax man.