stevio
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Post by stevio on Jun 15, 2018 19:39:07 GMT
My current accountant is retiring and I am looking into others
I was wondering how easy it would be to do these myself. I keep basic bookeeping, manage PAYE, VAT, Pension payments and administration, Dividends etc. Basically everything but the CT600 and Company Accounts
How much time would it take, we talking days or hours?
The accountants I have looked at all have different qualifications. Is there a link that easily explains the difference? Is there a minimum level of qualifications I should be looking for? Previously I found that only higher level qualifications were accepted for mortgage companies to take my Ltd income into account
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Post by mrclondon on Jun 15, 2018 19:54:25 GMT
These days the HMRC tax filing software creates the accounts for you, and files them at companies house (you need both your HMRC and CH logon details to hand for this reason). The online software is now pretty similiar to the personal self assessement approach, but for more complex companies you need to buy and use third party software.
The main issue I've heard that causes a problem is if you unpaid called up share capital on your balance sheet.
Since you already understand what all the figures are (which is the hard bit), the obvious strategy is to give it a go yourself and hopefully save yourself some £££ in the process. (But obviously your time has its own value, which needs to be bourne in mind). The software allows you to print the draft accounts it creates before filing them, so you could always print them and seek a second opinion before filing them.
For optimum effect at the credit rating agencies, remember accounts need filing by the 6 month mark ideally, and before the end of 8th month for sure.
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paulb
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Post by paulb on Jul 29, 2018 12:57:52 GMT
We were in the same situation a couple of years ago and have now submitted a couple of sets of accounts ourselves. We do the bookkeeping ourselves and use the HMRC online software which submits both the CT600 and Companies House accounts. You don't have to use this - If you're already using software for your bookkeeping, see if that can submit the paperwork for you.
One thing we did find useful was to attempt to recreate the most recent submission ourselves, to ensure that we could calculate the necessary figures. If your accountant hasn't yet retired, try and do this before they do, as they might be able to help you out if you can't get the figures to match.
Paul.
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Mike
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Post by Mike on Jul 30, 2018 8:57:16 GMT
There are quite a number of restrictions on being able to use the free filing software; including reporting foreign currency transactions, which might prevent small companies using it (who otherwise would qualify). You also need to be a very very small company.
As for days versus hours, if your books are in order and broadly already classified as they need to be on the return it doesn't take long. First time is obviously the longest time. The answer is likely to be hours rather than days (so long as there isn't too much mess to sort through). It is, I think, (for me) a good exercise in making sure records are made in a sensible way - minimising faff later on.
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