tazzy-lee
29th December 2009, 14:28
Hi there I wonder if any of you guys could give me some advice. I have recently taken on an accountant to do my accounts tax returns and vat.
I had a lengthy converstion with him back in March when I agreed to take on his services which seemed very good considering the price. He agreed to look over last years accounts which I had already drawn up on excel giving details of all sales and purchases in colum based order and cumulative totals income and expenditure.
I also had a vat account simple paid on one side and acrued on the other. I explained to him that I worried about ending up owing money down to the lack of confidence and the horror stories I had heard from a couple of people I know who ended up owing the taxman thousands down to bad accounts . I worried doing it myself and preferred to hand over to someone who knew what they were doing for peace of mind.
We agreed a price for checking last year and filing end of year tax return for that £500 and continuing with current year vat returns and end of year tax return. Also that he would advise on how much I should stick to with regard to withdrawals for any given year and general advice on how the business was going. He took all my invocies and receipts away with him for last year and I agreed to drop in all future current expenditure receipts and downloads of my sales on excel which I have continued to do.
I was surprised to find that at the end of every vat quarter, I was having to chase for information and would just get an e-mail back stating a figure to be paid. This happened twice so I wrote a lengthy e-mail stating that I was unhappy with this as I had no idea where these figures came from no sales figures or anything. I was more than ever in the dark than previously when doing them myself. After he had received this e-mail he sent me a draft accounts set of docs which horrified me!!! It stated that I owed vat £7000.000 and my drawings were more than 3 times what I had accounted for which was definatley WRONG!! .
In the end, we agreed on a meeting where we spent 2 hrs or more disussing things, I put him right on sooo many things that he had not accounted for to include vat that I had paid on existing stock at the time I registered for vat.
He agreed to re-do the figures and that he would forward an e-mail the following day to give me breakdowns and to include the last few months sales to tally with the vat figures recently paid.
This was 5 weeks ago and I have still not received any further comunication from him . He also said that for last year he was just gonna go by my figures and that he did not agree to check through the receipts or the accuracy of the entries, which is untrue!!! Why did he take the box of receipts away with him if this was not the case??
He had misread alot of the information given to him and in some instances presumed that the colum figure for assets indicated that I was running a company car when in fact it was office equipment, but all these things I have had to point out to him and more.If he had gone through the receipts he would have seen this. He also told me not to worry about the drawings figure as I was taxed on profits and not drawings, but this still alarmed me. He said that if he finds a discrepency then they have to presume that I have taken the money.
I am at my wits end and continue to worry as I have no confidence in this guy, I feel that he has too many customers on his books to provide a good service and cannot understand why I am paying him £500.00 for last year as it stands, he hasnt done anything so far to warrant this. He also makes me feel extremely uneasy - Whilst asking a simple question like writing off stock do to being usaleable - he came out with oh well u can aleays give them away as xmas presents assuming that was my intention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know I need to look for another accountant but my year end is January tax is also dur for last year then and |I have another vat quarter due to be paid in Jan too.
Sorry this is soo long winded, but wondered if anyone can give me a clear view of what is expected from an accountant on a minimum level which I think my requirements are and how would I go about selecting a more competant accountant.
I look forward to any replies
Regards and many thanks
I had a lengthy converstion with him back in March when I agreed to take on his services which seemed very good considering the price. He agreed to look over last years accounts which I had already drawn up on excel giving details of all sales and purchases in colum based order and cumulative totals income and expenditure.
I also had a vat account simple paid on one side and acrued on the other. I explained to him that I worried about ending up owing money down to the lack of confidence and the horror stories I had heard from a couple of people I know who ended up owing the taxman thousands down to bad accounts . I worried doing it myself and preferred to hand over to someone who knew what they were doing for peace of mind.
We agreed a price for checking last year and filing end of year tax return for that £500 and continuing with current year vat returns and end of year tax return. Also that he would advise on how much I should stick to with regard to withdrawals for any given year and general advice on how the business was going. He took all my invocies and receipts away with him for last year and I agreed to drop in all future current expenditure receipts and downloads of my sales on excel which I have continued to do.
I was surprised to find that at the end of every vat quarter, I was having to chase for information and would just get an e-mail back stating a figure to be paid. This happened twice so I wrote a lengthy e-mail stating that I was unhappy with this as I had no idea where these figures came from no sales figures or anything. I was more than ever in the dark than previously when doing them myself. After he had received this e-mail he sent me a draft accounts set of docs which horrified me!!! It stated that I owed vat £7000.000 and my drawings were more than 3 times what I had accounted for which was definatley WRONG!! .
In the end, we agreed on a meeting where we spent 2 hrs or more disussing things, I put him right on sooo many things that he had not accounted for to include vat that I had paid on existing stock at the time I registered for vat.
He agreed to re-do the figures and that he would forward an e-mail the following day to give me breakdowns and to include the last few months sales to tally with the vat figures recently paid.
This was 5 weeks ago and I have still not received any further comunication from him . He also said that for last year he was just gonna go by my figures and that he did not agree to check through the receipts or the accuracy of the entries, which is untrue!!! Why did he take the box of receipts away with him if this was not the case??
He had misread alot of the information given to him and in some instances presumed that the colum figure for assets indicated that I was running a company car when in fact it was office equipment, but all these things I have had to point out to him and more.If he had gone through the receipts he would have seen this. He also told me not to worry about the drawings figure as I was taxed on profits and not drawings, but this still alarmed me. He said that if he finds a discrepency then they have to presume that I have taken the money.
I am at my wits end and continue to worry as I have no confidence in this guy, I feel that he has too many customers on his books to provide a good service and cannot understand why I am paying him £500.00 for last year as it stands, he hasnt done anything so far to warrant this. He also makes me feel extremely uneasy - Whilst asking a simple question like writing off stock do to being usaleable - he came out with oh well u can aleays give them away as xmas presents assuming that was my intention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know I need to look for another accountant but my year end is January tax is also dur for last year then and |I have another vat quarter due to be paid in Jan too.
Sorry this is soo long winded, but wondered if anyone can give me a clear view of what is expected from an accountant on a minimum level which I think my requirements are and how would I go about selecting a more competant accountant.
I look forward to any replies
Regards and many thanks