accountant quote for tax return

T

Tastebuds

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I have been quoted by the accountant 400EUR +VAT to do my tax return this year.

I only have to do a CGT return of the disposal of some shares in 2015
and
income tax return for some income on the side of my full time employee job

400EUR +VAT seems expensive. Is not it?
I am tempted to give it a go myself and try to save the money, but the first time is a bit intimidating. Are there accountants that would review your "self made" tax return before submission for a more humble fee?

Thanks
 
Yes, it is expensive.

Most or all "professional" fees in Ireland are expensive - we have among the highest legal and medical fees in the world.

There is no need for an accountant unless your case is complex, which it doesn't seem to be.

Just register online and complete Form 11 or Form 12 tax return.
 
"Are there accountants that would review your "self made" tax return before submission for a more humble fee?"

This is called "Can I run something by you? I don't want to pay you a professional fee but I do want to be able to blame/sue you if you get it wrong!"

mf
 
Tastebuds said:
Are there accountants that would review your "self made" tax return before submission for a more humble fee?
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"I'm not willing to pay the going rate to do the job, but if I throw someone a few quid, they can fix all my mistakes and if they miss anything I can sue them." :rolleyes:
 
Nope, that's not expensive.

You can get it done properly for a fee or maybe do it right yourself for free.

Straightforward tax returns aren't difficult and the online system is pretty good.

Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
Protocol said:
Yes, it is expensive.

Most or all "professional" fees in Ireland are expensive - we have among the highest legal and medical fees in the world.
Click to expand...

You gotta love the old "accountancy (an open profession) fees are expensive because of legal and medical (each closed professions) fees" canard. :D
 
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I don't really agree with the 'can I run something by you' comment being necessarily unpaid. I do my own accounts, small fry, very simple but I wanted to make sure I was doing it right. I asked an accountant how much for an hour of his time, we agreed a figure and for that hour I showed him what I was doing and asked any questions I wanted, I was never going to hire him to do every year, I just wanted basically an accounting grind.

Sure he got an hour's pay, I got answers, worth asking one.
 
mf1 said:
This is called "Can I run something by you? I don't want to pay you a professional fee but I do want to be able to blame/sue you if you get it wrong!"
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Not word for word maybe but pretty much the gist of it.
 
SBarrett said:
A very selective sample size. What about the thousands of other company accounts audited every year in Ireland?
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What about them ?

How does anyone know what errors they may or may not contain, it is only when a company goes bankrupt and there is an investigation carried out that audit mistakes are brought to light.

The debacle that is the Anglo accounts, let us remind ourselves, the accounts materially overstated the deposit base (by €7 billion), the auditors failed to identify this.

This failure undermines, or at least should undermine, confidence in all audited accounts. Of course the audit profession shrugs its collective shoulders and carries on. The public don't care, even though it cost the taxpayer, €30 billion afaik, and we will act all shocked again the next time.
 
SBarrett said:
A very selective sample size. What about the thousands of other company accounts audited every year in Ireland?
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Selective? Oh yes and for very good reason. Our goverment should have made certain that those responsible for those audits be held to account. Do you disagree with that? Anyway, it's going slightly off topic, but i've made my point about TRUST.
 
Choosie
cremeegg said:
What about them ?

How does anyone know what errors they may or may not contain, it is only when a company goes bankrupt and there is an investigation carried out that audit mistakes are brought to light.

The debacle that is the Anglo accounts, let us remind ourselves, the accounts materially overstated the deposit base (by €7 billion), the auditors failed to identify this.

This failure undermines, or at least should undermine, confidence in all audited accounts. Of course the audit profession shrugs its collective shoulders and carries on. The public don't care, even though it cost the taxpayer, €30 billion afaik, and we will act all shocked again the next time.
Click to expand...

Companies are audited by the revenue on a regular basis. Accountants are audited by their regulator on a regular basis. If company audits are full of holes all the time, it would come to light.

There will always be cases where an audit is not done properly but to question a whole profession on the back of just one example is incorrect.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
SBarrett said:
Choosie
Click to expand...

??

SBarrett said:
Companies are audited by the revenue on a regular basis.
Click to expand...


SBarrett said:
If company audits are full of holes all the time, it would come to light.
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A revenue audit for tax purposes is not at all the same thing as a statutory audit of the financial statements. Where Revenue does identify "holes", (good word, images of €€€ draining away), they would have no role in bringing them to public attention. Do we have any idea how many Revenue audits result in a restatement of the tax payable ?

SBarrett said:
Accountants are audited by their regulator on a regular basis.
Click to expand...

Are they ? I thought it was their professional boddies, (another good word).


SBarrett said:
There will always be cases where an audit is not done properly but to question a whole profession on the back of just one example is incorrect.
Click to expand...

Where there are little or no sanctions when audits are not done properly, there will continue to be issues.
 
cremeegg said:
A revenue audit for tax purposes is not at all the same thing as a statutory audit of the financial statements. Where Revenue does identify "holes", (good word, images of €€€ draining away), they would have no role in bringing them to public attention. Do we have any idea how many Revenue audits result in a restatement of the tax payable ?
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Er, Revenue audit settlements are published in the quarterly tax defaulters lists.

cremeegg said:
Are they ? I thought it was their professional boddies, (another good word).
Click to expand...
https://www.iaasa.ie/

cremeegg said:
Where there are little or no sanctions when audits are not done properly.
Click to expand...

Ahem.
https://www.iaasa.ie/


Anyway all of this is off topic. Anytime anyone asks a question about accounting services or prices, the same few posters chime in with uninformed & prejudiced ranting about Anglo auditing and self-regulation. At least this time, the OP got 6 responses before the rubbish started. Getting more than a tad boring at this point.
 
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