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-   -   tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area? (https://www.diybanter.com/uk-diy/914-tax-accountant-self-employed-trades-reading-area.html)

John Stumbles August 6th 03 12:15 AM

tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area?
 
Subject says it all :-) September looming and I'm looking for an accountant
with experience of self employed tradespeople (I'm a plumber and general
jobber) who can advise me on doing my tax returns to best advantage wrt tax
etc. (I can and do DIY my accounts, it's the stuff like rolling over trading
losses from a start-up year to successive years that I'm looking for help
with.)

tia

--
John Stumbles
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Cannibalize Legalists




David August 6th 03 12:21 AM

tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area?
 
The smaller the firm, the cheaper they'll be and the more experience they'll
have had with sole traders. Try and get a recommendation from other sole
traders in your area.

Like my plumber though, if he thinks you can pay, an accountant will find a
way to charge.

"John Stumbles" ] wrote in message
...
Subject says it all :-) September looming and I'm looking for an

accountant
with experience of self employed tradespeople (I'm a plumber and general
jobber) who can advise me on doing my tax returns to best advantage wrt

tax
etc. (I can and do DIY my accounts, it's the stuff like rolling over

trading
losses from a start-up year to successive years that I'm looking for help
with.)

tia

--
John Stumbles
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Cannibalize Legalists






Andrew McKay August 6th 03 08:49 AM

tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area?
 
On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 23:15:56 +0100, "John Stumbles"
] wrote:

Subject says it all :-) September looming and I'm looking for an accountant
with experience of self employed tradespeople (I'm a plumber and general
jobber) who can advise me on doing my tax returns to best advantage wrt tax
etc. (I can and do DIY my accounts, it's the stuff like rolling over trading
losses from a start-up year to successive years that I'm looking for help
with.)


I recommend my accountant Tim Kingcott:

http://www.kingcott.co.uk

No problem mentioning my name if you give him a call, he's been my
accountant for my Ltd company since the day it began (he did the
necessary to create the company). And you are easily in his catchment
area.

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

Christian McArdle August 6th 03 11:18 AM

tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area?
 
(I'm a plumber and general jobber) who can advise me on doing my
tax returns to best advantage wrt tax


Wow, a plumber in Reading! There's a novelty.

How much would you charge for an new unvented DHW cylinder and new
condensing boiler installed to a new location in an already boarded loft?
All electrics, controls and programmers already taken care of.

Christian.



John Stumbles August 6th 03 02:29 PM

tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area?
 

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message
. net...
(I'm a plumber and general jobber) who can advise me on doing my

tax returns to best advantage wrt tax


Wow, a plumber in Reading! There's a novelty.

How much would you charge for an new unvented DHW cylinder and new
condensing boiler installed to a new location in an already boarded loft?
All electrics, controls and programmers already taken care of.


Is that a trick question to see if I know the regs re unvented dhw (I'm not
BBA qualified), or is it an IMM troll? ;-)

I'm currently agonising over how much to quote someone for a similar setup
(except with either a heat store or conventional cylinder instead of
unvented) and the best answer I've come up with so far is "if you have to
ask, you can't afford it" :-)

--
John Stumbles
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Experiments to demonstrate the existence of Sod's Law by dropping
slices of buttered toast all failed. That's Sod's Law.




Christian McArdle August 6th 03 02:34 PM

tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area?
 
Is that a trick question to see if I know the regs re unvented dhw
(I'm not BBA qualified), or is it an IMM troll? ;-)


No. I'm just desperate for a plumber that will actually turn up and quote
under 1000 per day labour. I'll end up doing it myself at this rate.

Christian.



Duke of Url August 6th 03 03:22 PM

tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area?
 

"Ronald Raygun" wrote in message
...
John Stumbles wrote:

Subject says it all :-) September looming and I'm looking for an
accountant with experience of self employed tradespeople (I'm a plumber
and general jobber) who can advise me on doing my tax returns to best
advantage wrt tax etc. (I can and do DIY my accounts, it's the stuff

like
rolling over trading losses from a start-up year to successive years

that
I'm looking for help with.)


That's easy to DIY too. Presumably you've done the sensible thing
and made your accounting period end on 5th April. Your first year
was then a part year to 5/4/2003. You have a loss in that part
year, so you will put 0 into box 3.83 and the loss into box 3.84.


By concession, the IR allow a year-end of 31 March to be treated as 5 April,
to avoid dealing with the 5 day gap. However, depending on how the losses
accrue, it can be advantageous to extend the accounting period. Although not
as beneficial as under the pre SA regime, a year end of 30 April gives you
the longest time before accounts need be prepared and tax paid - e.g. 31
March 2004 means tax due by 31 January 2005, but 30 April 2004 means 31
January 2006. The IR will normally allow up to an 18 month accounting period
for the first set of accounts, so 5 April could be a costly choice.

Selection of year-end is not as simple as might appear.

You can choose whether you wish to set that loss against other
income for 2002/03 (perhaps you made a transition from being
employed to being self-employed, or perhaps you have a fortune in
savings from a lottery win or redundancy payout which has earned
you lots of interest from which tax will have been deducted), so
that you pay less tax this year (even to the extent of getting a
refund of PAYE/interest taxes deducted), or to carry it forward to
set against profits for 2003/04 so that you pay less tax next year.


There are more possibilities for loss relief in the opening 4 years-
including carrying back 3 years (useful for any employment income) and
against CGT.

Which choice is more advantageous depends among other things on
whether you have had enough income to use up your personal allowance
(because unused parts of that cannot be carried forward). You don't
have to put all the loss one way, i.e. you can set part of it against
other income (box 3.85) and carry the rest forward (box 3.87).


Also the method of asset acquisition can effect the profit/loss
computation - cars, computers etc.

IMHO, an accountant could be useful in these circumstances.
--
Doug Ramage



Ronald Raygun August 6th 03 10:56 PM

tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area?
 
Duke of Url wrote:


"Ronald Raygun" wrote in message
...
John Stumbles wrote:

Subject says it all :-) September looming and I'm looking for an
accountant with experience of self employed tradespeople (I'm a plumber
and general jobber) who can advise me on doing my tax returns to best
advantage wrt tax etc. (I can and do DIY my accounts, it's the stuff

like
rolling over trading losses from a start-up year to successive years

that
I'm looking for help with.)


That's easy to DIY too. Presumably you've done the sensible thing
and made your accounting period end on 5th April. Your first year
was then a part year to 5/4/2003. You have a loss in that part
year, so you will put 0 into box 3.83 and the loss into box 3.84.


By concession, the IR allow a year-end of 31 March to be treated as 5
April, to avoid dealing with the 5 day gap. However, depending on how the
losses accrue, it can be advantageous to extend the accounting period.
Although not as beneficial as under the pre SA regime, a year end of 30
April gives you the longest time before accounts need be prepared and tax
paid - e.g. 31 March 2004 means tax due by 31 January 2005, but 30 April
2004 means 31 January 2006. The IR will normally allow up to an 18 month
accounting period for the first set of accounts, so 5 April could be a
costly choice.

Selection of year-end is not as simple as might appear.


I'm sure you're right, but at the end of the day it just boils
down to shuffling profit around into tax years in such a way
as not to waste unused allowances (if profit is low-marginal)
or so as to avoid exceeding unnecessary thresholds (if profit
is high-marginal), and if you hire an accountant to help you
make the choice, having already decided to save money by doing
the basic accounts yourself, it may well be that the accountant
will be more expensive because he has first to "sort out" the
"unsatisfactory" DIY acccounts.

And while choosing 30th or even 6th April as your accounting
date will give you a whole extra year in which to sort out
your accounts and pay your tax, in practice it means you will
spend a whole extra 12 months procrastinating before you end
up in a mad rush because the deadline is imminent. Far better
to get it out of the way when things are still fresh in your
mind. Ideally you should have all your data ready on 6th April
to transfer to the tax return form as soon as it arrives.

IMHO, an accountant could be useful in these circumstances.


One would need to carry out a cost/benefit analysis.

In general, I guess it depends on whether you'd rather spend
a couple of evenings understanding the notes which accompany
the tax forms, or paying an accountant possibly more than his
advice will save you.

Maybe accountants should get into gimmick marketing along the
lines of no-win no-fee lawyers, so that punters cound hire them
with confidence that they won't cost them anything if they don't
save them anything.


Dave Plowman August 6th 03 11:35 PM

tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area?
 
In article ,
David wrote:
Like my plumber though, if he thinks you can pay, an accountant will
find a way to charge.


Hmm. Isn't the whole idea of an accountant that he knows your finances?

--
*If your feet smell and your nose runs, you're built upside down.

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn

John Stumbles August 7th 03 01:11 AM

tax accountant for self employed trades in Reading area?
 
"Ronald Raygun" wrote in message
...
Duke of Url wrote:


"Ronald Raygun" wrote in message
...
John Stumbles wrote:

Subject says it all :-) September looming and I'm looking for an
accountant with experience of self employed tradespeople (I'm a

plumber
and general jobber) who can advise me on doing my tax returns to best
advantage wrt tax etc. (I can and do DIY my accounts, it's the stuff

like
rolling over trading losses from a start-up year to successive years

that
I'm looking for help with.)


---8-- snipped lots of stuff I'm still trying to get my head around ;-)

In general, I guess it depends on whether you'd rather spend
a couple of evenings understanding the notes which accompany
the tax forms, or paying an accountant possibly more than his
advice will save you.

Maybe accountants should get into gimmick marketing along the
lines of no-win no-fee lawyers, so that punters cound hire them
with confidence that they won't cost them anything if they don't
save them anything.


Hear hear! :-)


This is all slightly complicated as I want to get a more flexible mortgage
(ideally a current account mortgage - any suggestions? I asked BOS but they
won't touch me until I've been trading 3 or 4 years) and I think I'll need
my accounts audited for this; so if I'm going to have to pay an accountant
to go through my accounts I'd guess getting advice on saving tax (and
possibly also getting them to do the tax return) should be less expensive
than if this were my sole business with them.

--
John Stumbles
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Women always generalise




Andrew August 7th 03 12:08 PM

OT: Current account mortgages
 
"John Stumbles" ] wrote in message ...

This is all slightly complicated as I want to get a more flexible mortgage
(ideally a current account mortgage - any suggestions? I asked BOS but they


Don't know about self employed but the VirginOne account is excellent.
No problems whatsoever transferring from our old current account. It's
a true current account mortgage rather than a "flexible" mortgage and
so is completely flexible with regard to underpayments/overpayments.

The letter saying they passed on the recent interest rate cut (in
full) arrived within two business days of the cut being announced
(compare that with the likes of Abbey National, etc., who
procrastinate for weeks or months and then only pass on 0.1%).

No connection other than being a well pleased customer.

Andrew

N. Thornton August 7th 03 09:43 PM

OT: Current account mortgages
 
(Andrew) wrote in message . com...
"John Stumbles" ] wrote in message ...

This is all slightly complicated as I want to get a more flexible mortgage
(ideally a current account mortgage - any suggestions? I asked BOS but they


Don't know about self employed but the VirginOne account is excellent.
No problems whatsoever transferring from our old current account. It's
a true current account mortgage rather than a "flexible" mortgage and
so is completely flexible with regard to underpayments/overpayments.

The letter saying they passed on the recent interest rate cut (in
full) arrived within two business days of the cut being announced
(compare that with the likes of Abbey National, etc., who
procrastinate for weeks or months and then only pass on 0.1%).

No connection other than being a well pleased customer.

Andrew



Hi

This is very minor. Its when the **** hits the fan that you get to
find out if your mortgager is good or bad.

Regards, NT

John Stumbles August 8th 03 12:42 AM

OT: Current account mortgages
 
"N. Thornton" wrote in message
om...

... Its when the **** hits the fan that you get to
find out if your mortgager is good or bad.


- which is why I want to change away from the Halifax.

That Shylock chap wasn't so bad really :-)


--
John Stumbles
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Women always generalise




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