Like many self-employed people Erica had been busy running her business and tax was on her list of things to do. She had her papers ready in early November, nearly three months before the tax deadline.
Erica already had an accountant that she had used for her previous years accounts and tax return, so was dismayed when he told her that he could not help her this year when she contacted him. He had set his own deadline of the end of October and after that he would not accept any client work for the 31st January deadline. Whilst this might be convenient for him, it certainly wasn’t for Erica who thought that she had an accountant who would look after her tax affairs.
Similar to this, we have also heard of several accountants who increase their fees significantly throughout the year as a ‘penalty’ for not fitting in with their timescales.
Our own position on the matter is somewhat different; we actually actively look to take on clients in the later months of the year, even right up to the very last day of the deadline if necessary. This is a normal part of our service, so we were able to advise Erica that we could become her accountant straight away and actually had plenty of time before the deadline.
Erica was very relieved to find that out, and she could then return to concentrating on her business rather than having to spend time trying to find an accountant willing to take her on as a client and also charging reasonable fees. In addition, the search was costing her money in lost billable work.
Once we had received the information from Erica, we were able to turn around the accounts and tax return within a couple of weeks and take away her fears after being let down. This was all covered under our standard Silver package, at a cost similar to her last accountant but with extra benefits included.
