Is this accountant's fee reasonable?

The scare mongering by the accountants on this forum is laughable. The revenue in this country are actually quite easy to deal with, very supportive and very helpful. It's very clearly written into their charter that the public are to be dealth with fairly ,with courtesy and with respect. Yes they will apply interest and penalties to late returns but definitely no prosecutions unless there is strong evidence that the taxpayer is engaging in willful deceit to mislead or falsify returns
 
a few thoughts

"he contacted Revenue a month ago and confessed all."
- that will stand in his favour with Revenue and assist in minimising penalties and unlikely that prosecution would be applied as he knocked on their door before they knocked on his
see www.revenue.ie/en/practitioner/code-of-practice-revenue-audit.pdf page 85 and section 7.3
  • whether the alleged offender has made a full disclosure of the irregularities; has cooperated in reaching settlement and has paid all the tax, duty, interest and penalties that are due.
re a proposed fee of 2500, that would probably be VAT inclusive which is 2032 + VAT or 254 per return. Very little for a return to be prepared, reviewed, discussed with client, amended if required following discussion, submitted to revenue and so on

for the person themselves they, as already mentioned, get a tax deduction. Assuming top rate tax payers this roughly cuts the cost in half.

a quick google found this from 2013 which at section 6 sets out average fee quotes for CPA accountants which suggest a few of around 430 per return [broken link removed]

430 x 8 = 3440 + VAT which then discount down as you do all together so the fee of 2500 seems reasonable.

of course you will get someone who says they can get to done cheaper or that a friend of a friend knows someone who will do it for X but let them on. An accountant is a business not a charity and he chooses to set his fee based on his overheads and a customer can either choose to engage them or not.

Either way it is good that the OP's brother is sorting this out rather than leave it unsettled as revenue make lots of money from interest on late payments of tax.
 
Which of the accountants here have made such a claim?[/QUOTE

Maybe you are just a little sensitive to my expressing what I have heard again and again over many years from so many of your Accountant colleagues.

I suggest you read the sentence from the start for full context rather than selective editing.
 
Stay on topic, too big to admit when you get it wrong eh, I have been honest and forthright whilst you are being obtuse attributing comments to me which were never made, ready, fire, aim
 
The scare mongering by the accountants on this forum is laughable. The revenue in this country are actually quite easy to deal with, very supportive and very helpful. It's very clearly written into their charter that the public are to be dealth with fairly ,with courtesy and with respect.

They can be very easy to deal with, supportive and very helpful - but that doesn't mean they're right. I'm a tax-accountant, and it was always drilled into me when training how little those answering the phones or manning the desks in the Revenue actually are at their jobs. This is changing but at the higher levels, thanks to an influx of recently hired tax-accountants (poachers turned gamekeepers) but I hear they're moved around areas/specialities so often they can't build up expertise in their area.
 
I have a friend who's a tiler and employs an accountant to do his yearly returns. Always says how good a price he gets charged. So, I was chatting with the friend a few months back and it came up about TRS and I asked had his accountant ever enquired had he been claiming it. Turns out the accountant never noticed or asked about it. My friend got a cheque back from Revenue for €4,500 for 4 years unclaimed TRS. He lost out on previous years beyond the 4 year rule.

Moral of the story, cheaper isn't better, especially when they aren't checking your full tax affairs out for you.
 
I'm a tax-accountant, and it was always drilled into me when training how little those answering the phones or manning the desks in the Revenue actually are at their jobs.

Want to try that sentence again there chief...?! It's always amusing when someone trying to run down the intelligence and competence of thousands of people in one go, can't even structure a simple sentence... ;)
 
They can be very easy to deal with, supportive and very helpful - but that doesn't mean they're right. I'm a tax-accountant, and it was always drilled into me when training how little those answering the phones or manning the desks in the Revenue actually are at their jobs. This is changing but at the higher levels, thanks to an influx of recently hired tax-accountants (poachers turned gamekeepers) but I hear they're moved around areas/specialities so often they can't build up expertise in their area.
Don't know who was drilling that into you but I can tell you with certainty that whoever it was is/was WRONG. Irish revenue is "on the ball" no ifs no buts
 
Don't know who was drilling that into you but I can tell you with certainty that whoever it was is/was WRONG. Irish revenue is "on the ball" no ifs no buts

That is not the case. The frontline staff (answering phones) are frequently wrong, and the more senior staff tend to prefer the interpretation that leads to the worst result for the client.
 
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