Is this accountant's fee reasonable?

M

MichaelCOH

Registered User
Messages
27
Hi,

Seeking opinions!

Long, ridiculous story, but my brother owes tax on eight (!) years of rental income, and after much pleading with him to sort it out he contacted Revenue a month ago and confessed all.

Incidentally, they were very decent with him, no scolding or freaking him out about what his final bill will be, just calm advice.

So, he visited an accountant last week and asked for a quote on sorting it all out. He was told it would cost E2,500.

Just wondering if that sounds excessive? While there are eight years to deal with, it all looks fairly straightforward to me, there aren't many expenses that he can claim, so it looks like it's just a case of totting up the rental income in that period and figuring out what's owed - presumably Revenue will decide the figure for interest and penalties?

The accountant justified his fee by stressing he would work on getting the best deal possible from Revenue in terms of negotiating a payment plan, likely to be a lump sum up front and then the rest in instalments.

Would really appreciate your views on whether this is a reasonable fee.

Many thanks.
 
I suppose you have to look at it from the point of view, that if the accountant manages to get him a good deal, the amount could far out weigh the €2,500 he's asking for
 
€2500 for 8 years is an average of €312 per year. That's a good price by any reckoning.

Incidentally, your brother would have been much better off had he got professional advice before confessing everything to Revenue but that's another story.
 
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PaddyW said:
I suppose you have to look at it from the point of view, that if the accountant manages to get him a good deal, the amount could far out weigh the €2,500 he's asking for
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That's exactly his thinking Paddy, he'd probably pay anything at this stage to get it sorted out. It shows how out of touch I am, I thought the fee would be around E1,000, so I was surprised. But if that's the going rate, so be it. Thank you for the reply.
 
I think he can cut 1500 off this quote by shopping around.

Doing eight years returns in one batch is nothing near the work of doing eight single years at separate times.

The work involved is of a very basic nature and the charge out rate should be at the lowest level.

There is no special skill required in agreeing a payment plan of this nature with revenue.

Maximum work involved is one hour per year for eight years, say 10 hours @ 100 per hour = 1000

Advise your brother to go to two other accountants for a quote.
 
Dr.Debt said:
I think he can cut 1500 off this quote by shopping around.

Doing eight years returns in one batch is nothing near the work of doing eight single years at separate times.

The work involved is of a very basic nature and the charge out rate should be at the lowest level.

There is no special skill required in agreeing a payment plan of this nature with revenue.

Maximum work involved is one hour per year for eight years, say 10 hours @ 100 per hour = 1000

Advise your brother to go to two other accountants for a quote.
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I just range two accountants to ask this question

One said if all the information is delivered in "clean format" 800 euro and the other said 1000. The OP is spot on with his estimation.

There's lots of very good accountants out there working for reasonable fees.
 
Dr.Debt said:
There is no special skill required in agreeing a payment plan of this nature with revenue.
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Well if I was given a choice between an accountant who probably does this a few times a year or a Fireman/Roadsweeper/Dentist I would go with the former.
OP - the figure of 2.5k is an expense as well so depending on the tax bracket your brother is in it may only cost him half of that.
 
But there is a world of difference between an accountant who will just plug the figures into a Form 11 and submit it to Revenue and one who will actually do their best to minimise your tax liability for you.

If you think cheaper is better then by all means, ring around and go with the lowest price
 
Sorry, I'm not trying to antagonise any of the accountants on here. For 100 euro per hour, you should be getting a top guy. The quotes I got this morning were from an FCA and an FCCA. Both top guys. I dont know why thee is such a wide spread in fees but my advice to the OP is to shop around. You will do a lot better than 2500.
 
I'm not antagonised at all. By all means shop around.

But if you want your bathroom tiled or house painted then the cheapest guy isn't necessarily the best or isn't necessarily going to be doing as good a job as a more expensive guy.

The difference is that with something like tiling or painting you can see the finished product in front of you so you know if the job is good or not. With a tax return you don't know if the job is good or not, the return goes to Revenue and you get a tax bill, you can't actually know if a different accountant would have done a better job or not.

But I can tell you this, if your accountant doesn't ask you for stuff like your medical expenses, do you pay into a pension, does your job pay your VHI, etc etc then they aren't doing the best job for you, they are just pocketing a quick fee
 
Minimising the tax liability is one thing. Organising the preparation & filing of returns & submission of payment in a manner which will hopefully minimise the possibility of prosecution, on top of interest and penalties, is another thing entirely.
 
In my experience of accountants and im a non practising accountant myself, cheaper is not always inferior and more expensive is not always better. We have no idea whether the guy who charges 2500 is good or not.

If I was seeking to merge some companies or have a complex set of consolidated accounts prepared, then certainly I would be looking for credentials, however in this case, the task is the most basic of the basic. I dont employ a surgeon when i cut my finger !! A nurse will do the job just fine. A good nurse will do a better job than a surgeon because he or she is doing it every day
A basic level accountant will be more au fait with allowances and deductions of personal taxation than a high flier will be.
 
Dr.Debt said:
.... One said if all the information is delivered in "clean format" 800 euro and the other said 1000....
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Good grief, that's one hell of a difference. My brother gave me the gist of what he was told he needed to give to the accountant and it really sounded fairly straightforward, his affairs aren't complicated, so that's why I thought the quote sounded rather big. Okay, he definitely needs to get another couple of quotes to see if he can get this fee down, many thanks for your reply, greatly appreciated.
 
This reminds of the old saying "There's guys that know everything about cars and then there's mechanics".
 
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