Nationwide Accountant fees

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BobbyT

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Hi I am a self employed carpenter and have a small Ltd. registered company with no employees. My turn over for the last 4 years has been low 20-25k max and as so the company is running at a loss. All my tax returns are up to date and the company is no longer vat registered.
Because my accounts are very straight forward my accountants fee is normally 600+vat. I have requested a price for winding up the company and he quoted me 1200+vat.
Normally in the past I would have just gone ahead and proceeded, but as money is very tight at the moment I asked my accountant if he could do better on the price as I am assuming there could not be a lot of work in winding up a very straight forward small non performing company. He declined to reduce the price, saying that he must complete a final set of books as well as the winding up process.

What my questions are;

Is the final set of books pretty much the bulk of the winding up process?

Am I being naive by saying that there would not a lot of work involved in winding up my company?

And

Is this price acceptable and does anybody feel that this could be done for better price?

In advance I really appreciate any advice (including 'just suck it up and pay for it' :),..) , so all advice is kindly welcomed

Kind regards

Bobby
 
The €600+VAT annual fee you have been getting from your accountant to date is amazing - I frankly don't know how he made any money on it. If the €1,200 fee includes a final set of accounts & filings plus a voluntary strikeoff, its not bad value. There has to be a small margin in it for the accountant too - otherwise there's no point in him taking the responsibility and doing the work.
 
I have seen directors of small turnover companies simply forget about their company obligations and after a couple of years of inactivity the CRO will strike off the company anyway, I guess cost is the issue in many cases.

I am not advocating this but we all know it does happen, what would be the issues for the OP with a small company to simply stop trading, close bank accounts etc and wait for the company to be naturally struck off the register ?
 
If company is not wound down correctly Directors may face prosecution by ODCE. May be unlikely but they do take action against a number of Directors every year
 
I apologise for not getting back on sooner, the joys of being manager secretary, maintenance and general labourer altogether, just not enough hours. Thank you so much for the advice each piece of advice is very helpful to me.
Regarding T McGibney, his fees of 600+ vat were for annual return only, there was no work carried out during the year. In saying that I am a carpenter not an accountant, so I have no idea how much work is involved. I'm only thinking of how much work I would do in my business for that amount of money and also considering both I and my accountant are Kerry based, so there may be considerable difference between different counties regarding general account overheads and fees.
To Palerider I appreciate the thought and trust me there comes a point where I would consider it, but I'm an unfortunate cautious operator and would heed the advice from srase and would prefer to sleep soundly.
So a big thank you to all your help all is very much appreciated. I will be checking back on this thread over the coming weeks so if there is any more advice people feel I need to know please feel free to post. I can return carpentry and building advice if anyone needs it.

Cheers
Bobby
 
BobbyT said:
I apologise for not getting back on sooner, the joys of being manager secretary, maintenance and general labourer altogether, just not enough hours. Thank you so much for the advice each piece of advice is very helpful to me.
Regarding T McGibney, his fees of 600+ vat were for annual return only, there was no work carried out during the year. In saying that I am a carpenter not an accountant, so I have no idea how much work is involved. I'm only thinking of how much work I would do in my business for that amount of money and also considering both I and my accountant are Kerry based, so there may be considerable difference between different counties regarding general account overheads and fees.
Click to expand...

If you get year end accounts, abridged accounts, CRO return, Corporation Tax return and associated advice for €600+VAT, you're doing remarkably well. There's no way that accounting or general living costs are any way cheaper in Kerry than anywhere else - except perhaps in comparison to the cities - but in fact given the 'proactive' approach of Revenue's South West Region to small companies in recent years, accountants' fees may in fact be a little higher there than elsewhere.

Anyway, that's just my tuppenceworth.
 
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