Accountant or no accountant????

[rebellion]

Hi there

Just wondering what the general view out there is to the above. I'm trying to decide myself whether its worth it or not. I have just started a small pt biz which will turnover less than £10K pa and hence my self assesment as far as i am aware simply needs to be a simple 3 line statement of income, expenses and profit.

The thing is though knowing what expenses are allowable as business expenses. For example I converted the spare room into an office and I'm wondering if the furniture expenses can be put down as allowable expenses all at once or do they need to be written off over time?

Does anyone know if ther is a basic guide to what is and isn't allowable as a biz expense or is it probably best to get an accountant on board?

Thoughts appreciated!

Faz

[YEM]

We got an accountant when first starting out - this way we know that everything is in order, and we know that we wont miss important deadlines because the accountant lets us know when things need to be done.

Also, unless you have time to sort everything out everytime a return needs to be made (we hardly have time to do in-house admin, let alone get all the bookeeping stuff ready too), an accountant can be a life saver

[Joyous]

Getting an accountant to do your self assessment return is not as expensive as a lot of people seem to think. Typically for around £250 you can be sure that all of your expenditure has been correctly treated for tax purposes and that all of your allowances have been claimed. Even things like your choice of accounting date can have an effect on how much tax you'll have to pay out and the ordinary layperson is unlikely to know this.



For example I converted the spare room into an office and I'm wondering if the furniture expenses can be put down as allowable expenses all at once or do they need to be written off over time?

Office furniture and equipment are classed as fixed assets and as such capital allowances are claimable over a number of years.

It's advisable to keep a home office as much in the nature of a spare room as possible to avoid it being assessable for business rates and to keep it exempt for CGT purposes. Although to be honest I've never known anybody to come a cropper over this.


Does anyone know if ther is a basic guide to what is and isn't allowable as a biz expense or is it probably best to get an accountant on board??

The Revenue website is pretty informative on this but just bear in mind where they're coming from when it comes to tax advice. Also the businesslink site is also worth a look.

Regards

Joy

[rebellion]

Hi Lucy I can see where you are coming from, but your business is probably a lot bigger than my little pt venture!! Wouldn't you say it would be useful to do your own accounts when starting out and when you are v small in order to learn what is involved - at least then when anb acct is necessary you would have the knowledge base?

[Agri-Hire]

I wouldn't recommend doing your own accounts.

Saving a bit of cash now might look silly if you get a visit from the tax man in 4 years time and they go through everything with a fine comb.

Make sure you know what you are doing.

[mumper]

I wouldn't recommend doing your own accounts.

Saving a bit of cash now might look silly if you get a visit from the tax man in 4 years time and they go through everything with a fine comb.

Make sure you know what you are doing.

Makes sense - get an accountant, safest way.

[KM-Tiger]

Even for a very small enterprise, an accountant is likely to cost less than what you will save in tax.

From a business point of view that's one of the easier decisions to make.

[Hayles]

Absolutely, get an accountant..... but make sure they're good.


Take it from someone who..... no, lets not go there again.

Definitely get an accountant though!

Hayles