Hi All
I am a freelance contractor working through a vat registered limited company that has a year end in August. I decided to change my accountant for this tax year (2015-2016) for various reasons. I also adopted Quickfile for the current tax year. So far, Quickfile has been great and just what I wanted. I am on the free package and have not seen any need to “upgrade” as such.
With my new accountant I have only needed his services for year-end accounts and monthly payroll (RTI) filings. He has also included self assessments, though in the transition it seems I have to do my 2015-2016 return myself. So package of services are as follows:-
- Company accounts prepared and submitted with HMRC (annual)
- Company corporation tax return prepared and submitted with HMRC (annual)
- Self assessment return prepared for director and submitted with HMRC (annual)
- Payroll prepared and submitted for 2 employees (monthly, annual P60)
- Q&A (ad hoc)
My current accountant took an upfront lump sum payment for this year but has said he will be raising his prices in the new year and switching to a monthly format. As such, I am interested in understanding how his revised fees compare with the market.
I have tried to use the quickfile “year end comparison” feature but am a bit confused as it is showing me dropdown options for each of the last 5 years prior to my current one. I presume my current year will become an option next month. However, that is a bit too late for me cause if I was to consider a new accountant it would be now, and because of payroll/RTI requirements in September.
My current accountant has also made me aware that in a couple years (2018) HMRC is going to expect me to do 4 self assessment returns in a tax year (?!?!). As such, there is greater emphasis to use services like quickfile rather then spreadsheets in order to better automate the information transfer from the company accounts through to the tax return. That is fine but a key step for me is to bring in the information from my bank (Cater Allen) into quickfile. Unfortunately my bank does NOT have a quickfile plugin. Are there any plans for this? Also, does quickfile have plans to better support this crazy frequency of self assessment submissions?
I suppose the other thing I am curious about is if and when quickfile will be able to do my monthly payroll/RTI submissions? Or is there no plans to go beyond just an integration with the Payroll Site.
UPDATE Been advised my current accountant that he will be trying to get his clients onto a “new system” in order to be able to better handle the changes required in “making tax digital”. Looks like he may be planning on an alternative to Quickfile. I believe the changes have been very briefly discussed in this Nov 2015 forum post