Tax Assist Accountants

[sauzee_4]

Anyone had any dealings with them? Pros/Cons

Had a meeting with them the other day and they quoted me £306 per year for unlimited access to their accountants and Self Assessment completed by them. All I would need to do is bring my receipts in and show them.

Good deal?

Would be interested to know your thoughts

 

[Bob]

Anyone had any dealings with them? Pros/Cons

Had a meeting with them the other day and they quoted me £306 per year for unlimited access to their accountants and Self Assessment completed by them. All I would need to do is bring my receipts in and show them.

Good deal?

Would be interested to know your thoughts

Not enough information to comment upon the price quoted. Like accountants generally, there are good and bad within Tax Assist. It is just a franchise and your deal is with the individual accountant not Tax Assist itself who will not deal with complaints http://www.taxassist.co.uk/customerservices.php. They do not require their franchisees to be professionally qualified so there may not be a professional body for you to complain to if you are unhappy with the service you receive. http://www.taxassistaccountants.info/

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Not enough information to comment upon the price quoted. Like accountants generally, there are good and bad within Tax Assist. It is just a franchise and your deal is with the individual accountant not Tax Assist itself who will not deal with complaints http://www.taxassist.co.uk/customerservices.php. They do not require their franchisees to be professionally qualified so there may not be a professional body for you to complain to if you are unhappy with the service you receive. http://www.taxassistaccountants.info/

What a super post.

I know many people dont realise anyone can call themselves an accountant and in my opinion (as a qualified accountant) its important that when choosing an accountant you know this and make an informed choice.

 

[Jenni384]

What a super post.

I know many people dont realise anyone can call themselves an accountant and in my opinion (as a qualified accountant) its important that when choosing an accountant you know this and make an informed choice.

Absolutely. Bbbbb, you put it very well indeed!

 

[Jaydee]

Despite being a franchise of unrelated self-employed accountants (whether qualified or not) and not having a central complaints procedure etc, I do find it rather odd that they add together the fee income of all of their 185 franchisees to claim that they are the 34th largest practice in the UK http://www.accountancyage.com/static/top50-this-year

It doesn't seem right to me.

 

[Jenni384]

It doesn't seem right to me.

Agreed. And especially not when you compare it next to the adjacent data in the table!
£ per partner 500k 800k 88k 500k 700k
Number of partners 34 19 185 27 21
The figures seems distorted somewhat with their inclusion

They aren't a firm, they are a brand, and there is a difference, IMO

 

[Abacus Accountants]

The TaxAssist branches in my area are typical of the franchise. One is reasonable and run by a Chartered Accountant the other is run by the equivalent of a used car salesman. As previously mentioned, you really need to know the individual's qualification and experience.

TaxAssist's target market is 'white van man' which is why they are so cheap. If your business is very simple and you value cheapness more than good advice then TaxAssist may be just the thing!

Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh but I think it is pretty fair.

Good luck!

Andrew

 

[Strontium Dog]

But I thought they sent their people on weeks and weeks of training before letting them loose on the public

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

I gave a presentation today on social media and the Business Development Director from Tax Assist was there. I mentioned this forum - so we may see more TA accountants on here soon.

You'll have to make them welcome everyone

 

[TaxAssist]

We have read with interest and would like to highlight a few points regarding us, TaxAssist Accountants.

Some key points regarding our network are:

We were formed by an FCA qualified Accountant in 1995 with the specific remit to service small business clients. We look after all businesses under £1m turnover which does range from self employed van drivers right through to small companies employing up to 10 members of staff.

Since forming we have developed a network of 185 franchisees (who between them hold 289 relevant Tax & Accountancy qualifications and employ over 700 staff) who service over 36,000 small business clients and have £22million in Gross Recurring Fees across 200 locations in the United Kingdom. We also have 1 master operation in Ireland who in the past 18 months have developed a network of 9 franchisees.

As with any franchise, we have an initial 5 week residential training programme covering accounts, tax, software, case studies, sales and marketing. Each accountant, and their staff have direct access to our highly experienced and qualified helpdesk who hold a combination of FCA, CTA and ACCA qualifications and bring with them practice & industry experience. All TaxAssist Accountants receive technical visits/audits from our own qualified team to ensure service standards and compliance are maintained plus we ensure each accountant completes their continued professional development programme each year. As you can imagine, we also share a great deal of information within the network to share best practice and are truly able to specialise in small business accounts and tax.

The unqualified franchisees who joins us only join on the basis that they must employ qualified accountants.

We ourselves are full members of the British Franchise Association (www.thebfa.org) and in 2010 won the Franchisor of the Year Award for the support we give to our network plus the business growth we achieved during the recession.

Last year saw us included in the Accountancy Age Top 50 at number 34 which we are very proud of. We are not ashamed of our growth and we are there on merit. Accountancy Magazine came out later that year and placed us at number 28 to show our continued growth. We are listed as an accountancy network and each accountant/franchisee has a franchise agreement with us as the franchisor so they are very much related and we are more than a brand.

We do have an enhanced complaints procedure which allows three layers of complaint process to go through. Most accountants only have their professional body to go through or direct with the accountant themselves but we have seen many discussions on this forum confirming that many accountancy bodies will not get involved. We always want to know about the service our network delivers and welcome any negative or positive information about the service we give. We are a people driven business and have face to face meetings with our clients so if they are unhappy in any way they know to speak directly with the accountant or come through to ourselves.

We do not expect our competition to like us, it wouldn't be in your interest however we do expect a level of professionalism from those who hide behind anonymous forum profiles yet make comments about our service when they have never used it themselves to just try and draw business away from us.

We would welcome all of those involved in this discussion to come and learn more about us either by visiting our websites or attend a discovery day at our Support Centre in Norwich. We are a friendly team and recruit friendly accountants into our franchise who know how to grow their business and give good customer service.

Please do get in touch if this is of interest to you.

Kind regards

James Mattam
National Marketing Manager

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

We do not expect our competition to like us, it wouldn't be in your interest however we do expect a level of professionalism from those who hide behind anonymous forum profiles yet make comments about our service when they have never used it themselves to just try and draw business away from us.

I think all of the accountants on here are not anonymous!

Most of us post on here to help others - you can see that by the number of posts plus thanks we have.

The intention is not to draw business away from anyone not to express like nor dislike. Most of us are members of accounting bodies that prevent us disparaging other accountants.


However some times as a result of the great advice and help that people get from those that do spend their time freely on here a new client may be gained - maybe to the cost of your firm.

Who knows?


That just is a fact of life.


Of course any of the Tax Assists accountants can come and post on here - that way they could maybe avoid such comments that seem to have offended you being posted in the future.


My advice - join in with the forum.

 

[Geoff T]

Here's some numbers out of interest...

Tax Assist - joined in '07, posted 105 times, thanked ?

Elaine - joined '05, posted 10k+, thanked 1-5 per posts average...

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

Here's some numbers out of interest...

Tax Assist - joined in '07, posted 105 times, thanked ?

Elaine - joined '05, posted 10k+, thanked 1-5 per posts average...

Geoff we can all rub along together. Us accountants on here do - don't we guys :|

On a forum it is about giving

 

[Geoff T]

Geoff we can all rub along together. Us accountants on here do - don't we guys :|

On a forum it is about giving

I know - but as a beanie, you'll appreciate numbers more than most!

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

Don't be a meanie to us beanies!

 

[TaxAssist]

Hi Elaine, the anonymous accountants part wasn't aimed at you...because you aren't anonymous! Sarah has met you )

I agree with your statement that the accountants should be on this forum to help not to slate one another.

Geoff - Don't look at my account in particular as it isn't used that much but have a look at Mike Tombs who is one of our accountants who helps a lot on these forums. I would imagine he gets thanked alot.

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

I know it wasn't aimed at me

Why would it be

Mike hasn't been around for some time now you know or rather I haven't seen him recently

 

[CSBob]

What a super post.

I know many people dont realise anyone can call themselves an accountant and in my opinion (as a qualified accountant) its important that when choosing an accountant you know this and make an informed choice.

Scary. Good accounts (and accountants) are absolutely vital to business health. It would be rather like going in for a triple bypass only to find that the hospital orderly can call himself a heart surgeon by virtue of knowing only not to grasp the sharp end of a scalpel... There really should be a law against just anyone being able to refer to themselves as an "accountant".

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Geoff we can all rub along together. Us accountants on here do - don't we guys :|

On a forum it is about giving

My sentiments entirely and yes I think we all get on pretty well.

 

[Geoff T]

My advice – join in with the forum.

Here's some numbers out of interest...

...Geoff... On a forum it is about giving

...Geoff - Don't look at my account in particular as it isn't used that much...

Tax Assist - didn't mean to cause offence, was merely highlighting a point... (highlighted above)

 

[Atilla]

We have read with interest and would like to highlight a few points regarding us, TaxAssist Accountants.

Some key points regarding our network are:

We were formed by an FCA qualified Accountant in 1995 with the specific remit to service small business clients. We look after all businesses under £1m turnover which does range from self employed van drivers right through to small companies employing up to 10 members of staff.

Since forming we have developed a network of 185 franchisees (who between them hold 289 relevant Tax & Accountancy qualifications and employ over 700 staff) who service over 36,000 small business clients and have £22million in Gross Recurring Fees across 200 locations in the United Kingdom. We also have 1 master operation in Ireland who in the past 18 months have developed a network of 9 franchisees.

As with any franchise, we have an initial 5 week residential training programme covering accounts, tax, software, case studies, sales and marketing. Each accountant, and their staff have direct access to our highly experienced and qualified helpdesk who hold a combination of FCA, CTA and ACCA qualifications and bring with them practice & industry experience. All TaxAssist Accountants receive technical visits/audits from our own qualified team to ensure service standards and compliance are maintained plus we ensure each accountant completes their continued professional development programme each year. As you can imagine, we also share a great deal of information within the network to share best practice and are truly able to specialise in small business accounts and tax.

The unqualified franchisees who joins us only join on the basis that they must employ qualified accountants.

We ourselves are full members of the British Franchise Association (www.thebfa.org) and in 2010 won the Franchisor of the Year Award for the support we give to our network plus the business growth we achieved during the recession.

Last year saw us included in the Accountancy Age Top 50 at number 34 which we are very proud of. We are not ashamed of our growth and we are there on merit. Accountancy Magazine came out later that year and placed us at number 28 to show our continued growth. We are listed as an accountancy network and each accountant/franchisee has a franchise agreement with us as the franchisor so they are very much related and we are more than a brand.

We do have an enhanced complaints procedure which allows three layers of complaint process to go through. Most accountants only have their professional body to go through or direct with the accountant themselves but we have seen many discussions on this forum confirming that many accountancy bodies will not get involved. We always want to know about the service our network delivers and welcome any negative or positive information about the service we give. We are a people driven business and have face to face meetings with our clients so if they are unhappy in any way they know to speak directly with the accountant or come through to ourselves.

We do not expect our competition to like us, it wouldn’t be in your interest however we do expect a level of professionalism from those who hide behind anonymous forum profiles yet make comments about our service when they have never used it themselves to just try and draw business away from us.

We would welcome all of those involved in this discussion to come and learn more about us either by visiting our websites or attend a discovery day at our Support Centre in Norwich. We are a friendly team and recruit friendly accountants into our franchise who know how to grow their business and give good customer service.

Please do get in touch if this is of interest to you.

Kind regards

James Mattam
National Marketing Manager

A well put together PR missive.
However, and i can only speak for myself, being in the process of deciding on an Accountant, your post got you struck off the list of candidates.
It came across as very much 'we, we, we,'. We've achieved this, we've grown to that, we're on target to be number one...etc.

The only part that mentioned customers was a complaints procedure. Why is that?

 

[Jaydee]

Also, among the missive was the following stats:

... we have developed a network of 185 franchisees (who between them ... employ over 700 staff) ... and have £22million in Gross Recurring Fees

So, on average, the network is billing less than £25,000 per principal or employee.

That seems a suicidally low level of fees per person - was that a deliberate business model?

Nice growth though, as you seem to have gone from £16-odd million to £22m without increasing your franchisee numbers.

 

[Bob]

We do have an enhanced complaints procedure which allows three layers of complaint process to go through. Most accountants only have their professional body to go through or direct with the accountant themselves but we have seen many discussions on this forum confirming that many accountancy bodies will not get involved. We always want to know about the service our network delivers and welcome any negative or positive information about the service we give. We are a people driven business and have face to face meetings with our clients so if they are unhappy in any way they know to speak directly with the accountant or come through to ourselves.

Glad to hear it but your website still says:
"Client Complaints
We hope that you will be fully satisfied with the services you receive from your TaxAssist Accountant. However, if you have a complaint regarding one of our TaxAssist Accountants you will need to contact them direct as all of our TaxAssist Accountants are self-employed individuals.
Each TaxAssist Accountant is licensed to use the intellectual property of TaxAssist Direct Ltd and operates as a sole trader in their own right. They are also required to carry their own professional indemnity insurance which is a requirement of being a member of our network and all TaxAssist Accountants are comprehensively trained by us before they commence trading, with continual professional development.
Whilst staff at the Support Centre are happy to listen to any comments you may have regarding your TaxAssist Accountant, we do not have access to, or authorisation over, any individual client records, accounts or monies that are held by a TaxAssist Accountant. You must therefore pursue any grievance you may have with the accountant concerned."

 

[Bob]

We do not expect our competition to like us, it wouldn’t be in your interest however we do expect a level of professionalism from those who hide behind anonymous forum profiles yet make comments about our service when they have never used it themselves to just try and draw business away from us.

I may well be one of the anonymous posters to whom you refer
Probably because I have retired and am no longer in practice, I am however still a member of ICAEW and ACCA and held an audit qualification for many years.
In any case, I believe that my post was factual unless you can show me otherwise

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

I may well be one of the anonymous posters to whom you refer
Probably because I have retired and am no longer in practice, I am however still a member of ICAEW and ACCA and held an audit qualification for many years.
In any case, I believe that my post was factual unless you can show me otherwise

Note to self - do not get on the wrong side of Bob

Blimey Bob - never seen you post like that before

 

[Bob]

Note to self - do not get on the wrong side of Bob

Blimey Bob - never seen you post like that before

Certainly can be a grumpy old man when someone cast aspersions on possibly my professionalism Actually my wife says that I can be grumpy at other times as well

Would have been even more grumpy tonight at is has just taken me 6 hours instead of 3 to get back to Kent from Cardiff as the M4, M3 and M25 were all gridlocked Should have remembered that it was the end of half term and that everyone would be driving home :redface:

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

Certainly can be a grumpy old man when someone cast aspersions on possibly my professionalism Actually my wife says that I can be grumpy at other times as well

Would have been even more grumpy tonight at is has just taken me 6 hours instead of 3 to get back to Kent from Cardiff as the M4, M3 and M25 were all gridlocked Should have remembered that it was the end of half term and that everyone would be driving home :redface:

Oh dear - not good

That will teach you to go abroad for your holidays (how long before Mr G comments do you think?).

 

[David Griffiths]

Oh dear - not good

That will teach you to go abroad for your holidays (how long before Mr G comments do you think?).

Just to say that it serves him right for living in Kent!

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

Just to say that it serves him right for living in Kent!

I love that you never disappoint me

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hi James

Thank you for taking the time to post a little about TaxAssist.

Hopefully you'll get a little more involved in the forum as a regular poster

 

[David Griffiths]

I love that you never disappoint me

I wouldn't dream of letting you down.

Or of keeping my mouth shut

 

[Bob]

That will teach you to go abroad for your holidays

If only !! We just went there for the day to visit some aged relatives It is like going abroad though. You have to queue up at the frontier and pay them money to cross their bridge. They let you go home for nothing

Just to say that it serves him right for living in Kent!

Just realised that we could have called in to say hello. We were in Maesycwmmer which is only 20 minutes away from you. A lot of my relatives came from the area - around Pengam and Fleur de Lys. It's a small world ......

 

[David Griffiths]

If only !! We just went there for the day to visit some aged relatives It is like going abroad though. You have to queue up at the frontier and pay them money to cross their bridge. They let you go home for nothing

Of course. It costs money to get into Wales, because it's worth it, but people wouldn't pay to get into England.

Tip: If you are coming down at a busy time, use the old bridge. It's slightly further, with less traffic, but the queues are much shorter.

Just realised that we could have called in to say hello. We were in Maesycwmmer which is only 20 minutes away from you. A lot of my relatives came from the area - around Pengam and Fleur de Lys. It's a small world ......

Yes, it's not far. I take it that you aren't from Fleur de Lys - all of the locals call it Flower!

 

[Bob]

I take it that you aren't from Fleur de Lys - all of the locals call it Flower!

No, I'm English

But I did know it was Flower as my cousin taught at a Primary School there 60 years ago and a lot of my family were buried there

 

[TaxAssist]

Glad to hear it but your website still says:
"Client Complaints
We hope that you will be fully satisfied with the services you receive from your TaxAssist Accountant. However, if you have a complaint regarding one of our TaxAssist Accountants you will need to contact them direct as all of our TaxAssist Accountants are self-employed individuals.
Each TaxAssist Accountant is licensed to use the intellectual property of TaxAssist Direct Ltd and operates as a sole trader in their own right. They are also required to carry their own professional indemnity insurance which is a requirement of being a member of our network and all TaxAssist Accountants are comprehensively trained by us before they commence trading, with continual professional development.
Whilst staff at the Support Centre are happy to listen to any comments you may have regarding your TaxAssist Accountant, we do not have access to, or authorisation over, any individual client records, accounts or monies that are held by a TaxAssist Accountant. You must therefore pursue any grievance you may have with the accountant concerned."

Hi bbbbb, well yes it's factually correct because they have to speak to the accountant first. If they aren't getting anywhere then they can talk to us but on the understanding that we don't have client records, accounts or monies etc etc. It's just being clear up front so people understand. Any complaint we hear about will be discussed with the accountant to find out what has happened. No other accountants have that third layer unless they are a part of a franchise or network.

P.S. No offence taken from the other post about usage of my account on here.

 

[Bob]

Hi bbbbb, well yes it's factually correct because they have to speak to the accountant first. If they aren't getting anywhere then they can talk to us but on the understanding that we don't have client records, accounts or monies etc etc. It's just being clear up front so people understand. Any complaint we hear about will be discussed with the accountant to find out what has happened. No other accountants have that third layer unless they are a part of a franchise or network.

Thanks for clarifying that. So does it mean that you will actually intervene if there is a client complaint about poor service and penalise the franchisee in some way? If there is this third layer, would it not give some comfort to your franchisee's clients if it were spelt out in words of one syllable on the website?

 

[TaxAssist]

Also, among the missive was the following stats:



So, on average, the network is billing less than £25,000 per principal or employee.

That seems a suicidally low level of fees per person - was that a deliberate business model?

Nice growth though, as you seem to have gone from £16-odd million to £22m without increasing your franchisee numbers.

Hi Jaydee, thanks for the compliment on growth. We have been pleased with how well our accountants have grown their practices.

The breakdown of the £22m doesn't quite work how you have calculated it as some practices are much larger than others with around 40 of our practices still under 24 months old. The model would not allow for £25,000 per principal as our accountants are looking at and achieving much higher client fees than that.

 

[TaxAssist]

Thanks for clarifying that. So does it mean that you will actually intervene if there is a client complaint about poor service and penalise the franchisee in some way? If there is this third layer, would it not give some comfort to your franchisee's clients if it were spelt out in words of one syllable on the website?

We will mediate with the franchisee and the client to find out what has happened. I would admit that we are reviewing the wording on the website thanks to your comment so we can possibly explain that more clearly.

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

We will mediate with the franchisee and the client to find out what has happened. I would admit that we are reviewing the wording on the website thanks to your comment so we can possibly explain that more clearly.

Surely you have something in your franchise agreement to cover behaviour of franchisees?

 

[TaxAssist]

A well put together PR missive.
However, and i can only speak for myself, being in the process of deciding on an Accountant, your post got you struck off the list of candidates.
It came across as very much 'we, we, we,'. We've achieved this, we've grown to that, we're on target to be number one...etc.

The only part that mentioned customers was a complaints procedure. Why is that?

Hi Atilla, I'm sorry if I have put you off, that certainly wasn't my intention. My post was not a PR missive but a justification to all of the points raised about our service to the other accountants posting on this forum.

I could write about the 4 compelling reasons clients want to work with TaxAssist Accountants until the cows come home but then the administrators of this forum don't like sales messages on here so I think that restricts me a little.