Accountant Fee – too high?

TripleAce

Hi! I own a small e-commerce business since 2016 and last year (2017) I did my first annual return through my accountant. Note that this is a LTD company but pretty small (not VAT registered), I record all the sales and expenses and then share them with the accountant once per year around February/March as the annual return needs to be submitted around that period. For this work I got charged 1,250€, which seems quite high to me but as I never had any other accountant and last year was the first time I had the company’s annual return done.

Yearly sales for 2017 have increased a bit but are only around 15k €, therefore the accounting fee has quite a bit of an impact on my end of year profit and would like to reduce them if possible.
Could you please confirm if 1,250€ is a fair price or can I save on this somehow? Any suggestion especially from small business owners would be great ��
Any advice/suggestion is very much appreciated. Thank you!

turbot

Sounds high given the simplicity of your business and return and the work that you did.

punisher5112

TripleAce wrote: »

Hi! I own a small e-commerce business since 2016 and last year (2017) I did my first annual return through my accountant. Note that the business is setup as a LTD company but pretty small (not VAT registered), I record all the sales and expenses and then share them with the accountant once per year around February/March as the annual return needs to be submitted around that period. For this work I got charged 1,250€, which seems quite high to me but as I never had any other accountant and last year was the first time I had the company’s annual return done.

Yearly sales for 2017 have increased a bit but are only around 15k €, therefore the accounting fee has quite a bit of an impact on my end of year profit and would like to reduce them if possible.
I searched a bit on the internet and found a few cheaper options, like these guys for example: https://accountantonline.ie/persona/existing-company/ what makes me wonder though is why are they this cheap compared to my existing accountant? Can I expect them to complete the work I need or am I missing something? Would you know any other available option?
Any advice/suggestion is very much appreciated. Thank you!

Did you discuss a fee before hand??

Contact them and try and get them to lower it if you feel it's above normal.

Mooooo

There is more involved to a Ltd company accounts than say a sole trader etc. Best bet is to ring a few and see what they'll quote you and offer. Also a good accountant can be worth more in terms of advice given at different stages so if it's just someone that is gonna to the tax returns and that's it it could be false econonmy

TripleAce

PS: sorry i edited the original post. I just noticed that the price of the linked website was monthly, not yearly as I though (that would have been very optimistic!)

wally1990

I'd also bear in mind that the fee is tax deductible against corporation tax at 12.5% so costing slightly less and ltd company accounts are more difficult than sole trader accounts in general

duploelabs

Between 1250 and 1500 seems to be standard for audited limited company accounts, regardless of activity

tacofries

My accountant charges me total €800 ex vat for quarterly management accounts, unaudited annual accounts, bimonthly vat returns and looking after my personal tax returns.

I do a manual reconciliation by putting a number beside each transaction that is listed on my bank statement. I then put a corresponding number on each invoice which I keep chronologically in a ring binder. I give the ring binder to my accountant every 2 months and he then inputs every invoice/transaction into a computer software such as Quickbooks.

My method above is great because it saves me from ever having to go near a computer and also saves me the €150 annual fee that Quickbooks charges.

Admittedly, I only had 170 invoices in 2017 and the above method is probably not the best if you are dealing with a lot of transactions which makes it hard to know exactly what your finances are at every moment in time. My business model is very simple at the moment so it suits me perfectly

Immy

You could probably get somewhere for around 800-1000.

exaisle

duploelabs wrote: »

Between 1250 and 1500 seems to be standard for audited limited company accounts, regardless of activity

As the turnover is not high enough to warrant VAT registration, the company is, most likely, audit exempt. What we're talking about is preparing accounts, doing CT returns and CRO submissions.

The fee appears grossly excessive to me. I'd expect the fee to be somewhere in the region of €700 plus VAT. Unfortunately, OP cannot claim the VAT back, so it would cost him €861.

TripleAce

Great, thank you for all the replies!

Correct, the company is not VAT registered. If you have links to websites of accountants you know (possibly based in South Dublin/Bray/Greystones) who apply the fee suggested above (around 800€) for the annual returns I would appreciate if you could share them with me so I can contact them and get a quote. Thank you

berettaman

Hi.

Can sometimes be hard to judge but a company that is vat exempt and audit exempt I would expect a fee to be between 700-1000 excl vat.

Most accountants will do the Company accounts, CRO return, CT return , P.35 and Directors Income Tax return all in for that price so anything less than a €1000 and you are doing well, depending on the quality of the books handed over.

If books are a mess expect to pay hardship money..