voluntary strike-off

kdowling

i have been quoted €500 + VAt for a voluntary strike off of my company by my accountant.

On futher investigation i realised that you can get an ad in one of the approved papers for €130. (including VAT) and that all else that needs to be done is write a letter to the revenue commissioner requesting a letter of no objection (which costs 55c for a stamp and very little time)

How can accountants possibly justify such a price when there is so littlew to do?

viztopia

maybe you should set up an accountancy practice in competition against your accountant and put him out of business if its that easy.

ants09

The accountant needs to follow the following steps in relation to a voluntary strike off.

Make sure all returns are up to date with the cro
Letter of no objection from the revenue commissioners
An advertisment in a newpaper
And then fill in the form H15 to the cro

For 500 euro's i think this is quite reasonable

J.Ryan

ants09 wrote: »

The accountant needs to follow the following steps in relation to a voluntary strike off.

Make sure all returns are up to date with the cro
Letter of no objection from the revenue commissioners
An advertisment in a newpaper
And then fill in the form H15 to the cro

For 500 euro's i think this is quite reasonable

To me thats a high fee for the level of work involved, granted I get the client to pay for the advert, so its not like for like.

ants09

J.Ryan wrote: »

To me thats a high fee for the level of work involved, granted I get the client to pay for the advert, so its not like for like.

In relation to verifying that the amount of assets are not greater then €150 and that the amount of liabilities (including contingent liabilities) are not greater then also €150. it cannot simply net off the two in a balance sheet exercise to assert that it has "no assets or liabilities in excess of €150".

Can be time consuming.

But granted your not comparing like with like.

So to me €500 seems reasonable but it also depends on the indivual case.

J.Ryan

ants09 wrote: »

In relation to verifying that the amount of assets are not greater then €150 and that the amount of liabilities (including contingent liabilities) are not greater then also €150. it cannot simply net off the two in a balance sheet exercise to assert that it has "no assets or liabilities in excess of €150".

Can be time consuming.

But granted your not comparing like with like.

So to me €500 seems reasonable but it also depends on the indivual case.

To me that’s a separate assignment, if it needs to be done and recorded, then you charge for it.

If you are simply doing the strike off process, then you;
- you get the letter of engagement signed up, (plus AML documents) (letter to existing agent)
- check the items that you need to check.
- you become the Revenue Agent (agent link notification),
- you send off the letter asking for no objection
- you get the letter back (eventually)
- you get the client to place the advert
- you get the newspaper containing the advert from the client
- you complete the form H15 and submit.

We are not discussing hours of high pressure work

ants09

J.Ryan wrote: »

To me that’s a separate assignment, if it needs to be done and recorded, then you charge for it.

If you are simply doing the strike off process, then you;
- you get the letter of engagement signed up, (plus AML documents) (letter to existing agent)
- check the items that you need to check.
- you become the Revenue Agent (agent link notification),
- you send off the letter asking for no objection
- you get the letter back (eventually)
- you get the client to place the advert
- you get the newspaper containing the advert from the client
- you complete the form H15 and submit.

We are not discussing hours of high pressure work

Also check to see if the company has any business name and to deregister that before that voluntary strike off is complete

J.Ryan

ants09 wrote: »

Also check to see if the company has any business name and to deregister that before that voluntary strike off is complete

Yes, but again how long does that take to check?, again if the directors are coming to you because the company has ceased trading then that should have been done, if it hasn't then agree a fee for you to do it or get them to do it.

To build a fee for work that may not have to be done in any quote, to me, does not make sense, I would quote a fee of X, but, you are doing this and I am just confirming that you qualify for the strike off proceedure, if work needs to be done, you do it or you pay me to do it.

I'm not saying work for free, if the original accountant has to do a lot of work, then the fee is justified, checking the company is up to date in the CRO takes no time, purchasing the last accounts, costs €2.50 (maybe less if you don't buy from the CRO), checking the O/s tax returns takes very little time using ROS, they are either submitted or they are outstanding.

If you have done these before, you only have to change the names (granted you double check before it leaves the office) on the advert on word, before sending it to the client to get it placed in the newspaper.

It is not a big job, in itself, if there are reasons that the company does not qualify, bounce them back to the client to resolve

kdowling

ants09 wrote: »

The accountant needs to follow the following steps in relation to a voluntary strike off.

Make sure all returns are up to date with the cro i made a phone call to check this, it took 4 minutes and as a 1890 number cost me 30 cents
Letter of no objection from the revenue commissioners This letter takes approximately 1 minute and cost 60c for envelope + stamp
An advertisment in a newpaper costs €130 (takes another minute or two to email the add into the advertisement section
And then fill in the form H15 to the cro takes another minute or two

For 500 euro's i think this is quite reasonable

He already did my annual returns so he knows that my assets and liabilities are less than €150

All in it costs my accountant €131 and takes around 10 minutes in total.

you think thats good value?

Now i know accounting in general, annual returns etc require professional attention and deserve appropriate remuneration but being charged like this for sending off a letter and making a phone call is ridiculous.

J.Ryan

kdowling wrote: »

He already did my annual returns so he knows that my assets and liabilities are less than €150

All in it costs my accountant €131 and takes around 10 minutes in total.

you think thats good value?

Now i know accounting in general, annual returns etc require professional attention and deserve appropriate remuneration but being charged like this for sending off a letter and making a phone call is ridiculous.

It takes longer than 15 minutes, plus there may (or may not) have been other things built into the quote, as stated above it is more than I would quote for the assignment, but that is neither here nor there.


Your timings are out, 2 minutes to do the advert and send it, be realistic.

kdowling

J.Ryan wrote: »

It takes longer than 15 minutes, plus there may (or may not) have been other things built into the quote, as stated above it is more than I would quote for the assignment, but that is neither here nor there.


Your timings are out, 2 minutes to do the advert and send it, be realistic.

okay so i'm probably exagerating the time slightly but I did the whole lot myself in about 20 minutes and I'm sure the accountants have template letters for requesting letters of no objection where they only have to change the name.

J.Ryan

So you've sent off the advert already?

kdowling

J.Ryan wrote: »

So you've sent off the advert already?

Are you claiming this is a complex process too?
You simply email the ad into the paper and hey presto. Revenue even give an example of what is acceptable on their website.

Anyways debating accountancy fees with a bunch of accountants is pretty pointless! I just hope someone looking to do a voluntary strike off sees this thread and realises that it is a very simply process that you can do yourself and save yourself some money. over and out!

J.Ryan

No thats fine, just generally we hold off because the letter of no objection takes a while to come out and the advert has to be dated within 6 weeks of the application.

so if you post the letter to the Revenue on Monday, you now need them to process it, approve it and send it back to you within 5 weeks or you have to pay for a second advert.


You didn't even read the rest of my posts in this thread, before getting snotty with me, I was the accountant agreeing with you that it was a high fee.


Sometimes accountants charge high fees to get ride of some of their clients.

kdowling

J.Ryan wrote: »

You didn't even read the rest of my posts in this thread, before getting snotty with me, I was the accountant agreeing with you

Sorry bout that, I took you up wrong on that one.

deepriver

it takes an hour for the accountant to complete the strike off and 10 years to qualify as an accountant...

in terms of getting the assets and liabilities below €150, its easy enough to figure out what to do with the assets, but what about the liabilities where they cant be repaid... write them off?

Twatter

kdowling wrote: »

i have been quoted €500 + VAt for a voluntary strike off of my company by my accountant.

On futher investigation i realised that you can get an ad in one of the approved papers for €130. (including VAT) and that all else that needs to be done is write a letter to the revenue commissioner requesting a letter of no objection (which costs 55c for a stamp and very little time)

How can accountants possibly justify such a price when there is so littlew to do?

Hi Which of the newspapers quoted you 130? I am in the process of applying for voluntary strike off and this might save me a few euro! Thanks:)

kdowling

Twatter wrote: »

Hi Which of the newspapers quoted you 130? I am in the process of applying for voluntary strike off and this might save me a few euro! Thanks:)

The irish sun