New Accountants Fees

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carrs

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We have a company which is not trading at the moment but need the yearly accounts done + submission to CRO. We are changing accountants because the other one was not performing.

We met with a new accountant yesterday and told him about the small turnover and just needing accounts done once a year. I can do up spreadsheets with the very few transactions that we have and email them to him. I told him that there are a couple of updates to be done on the CRO side ie change of directors addresses and shareholding which was not done by our previous accountant - don't ask why. I also told him that I could do the VAT - hardly any. Just asked him could we use his office for our registered address.

I asked him for a fee on this and he quoted about E1100-E1200. Now I have to ring him today to clarify is this just for the first year due to taking over the accounts and getting to grips with it or can I expect this fee for doing the accounts every year. I thought the fee was a bit excessive myself but I have no idea what the going rate is for accountants. Also can someone explain about this audit exemption and would it reduce the fees.

Thanks for any help.
 
In relation to the audit exemption there are certain conditions and limits eg sales cant be over 7.3 million, that need to be met if your company is to claim audit exemption. If however your returns were late in to the cro for the last period you are not entitled to an audit exemption for the following year even if you are under the limit to quaify.

Yes the fee should also be reduced if you do not need audited accounts as there is alot of work and paper work involved in an audit. Mite i suggest an accountant as opposed to an auditer if you not need an auditor.

It alos depends on your company set up. Eg: if its a company limited by guarantee or management company etc you automatically need an audit. When you ring about the fee if you ask them they should be able to tell you if you require an audit or not.

Hope this helps!
 
(1) Is the company which is not trading different to the one which you refer to as having small turnover or are you referring to the one business?

(2) Do you presently qualify for audit exemption and is the quote for audit exempt accounts for a trading company together with all related CT/CRO/Directors returns?
( notes on audit exemption can br found at www.cro.ie under Audit Exemption )
 
It's not excessive, costs are so high for accountants these days that it's hard for them to make money otherwise. You're going to have other posters jump on here and give out about the prices accountants charge etc. I assume that the fee includes support so you can call your accountant for any queries throughout the year. The fact you do your own bok keeping is not as cost effective as you might think. I'd personally prefer if none of our clients did their own book keeping because 90% of the time it's wrong and you spend more time fixing the mistakes then it would do the whole thing yourself.

Other factors which affect the price are:

  1. Is the company audit exempt?
  2. Does the price include the submission of your corporation tax return?
  3. Does the price include the directors tax returns?
"It's unwise to pay too much, but it's also unwise to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money, that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it's well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough money to pay for something better." John Ruskin​
 
Sorry I'm not being clear. It is one company. Not trading. Nil turnover.

We qualify for audit exemption but I'm not sure if the previous accountant applied for this.

The only transactions on the bank accounts are the odd small loan repayment to directors and bank charges. I told the accountant that I could do the returns to CRO re change of address of directors etc. The company is limited by shares.
 
Find out how much of cost is for use of accountant office address as registered office and how much for other work and them it is fairer to make an comparison.

Some places have an charge for registered office
 

If you meet the criteria for audit exemption then all that is required is a tick in a box on the annual return and a minute of a meetin gof directors to confirm they are availaing of it.

Otherwise ( registered office issue aside) I still consider the work could be done, satisfactory AND to all necessary Accounting/CRO/Revenue standards for less than the fee quoted.
 
Just to give you an update. I spoke to the accountant and told him that I thought that the fees were a bit excessive based on what we wanted him to do. He told us that he gave that figure because he didn't want to underestimate the fee but more or less said that that would be the most. He couldn't give a more accurate figure until he seen exactly what needed doing. He asked me what figure I was thinking of and I told him E500-E600 at most and he said that the very minimum they would charge would be E800. He did say that even though there was nothing happening it still took time to do up the accounts and file them.

Thanks for all your replies.
 
What extra work - what time? Very little work involved here. 5 hours at most. To cover the risk I would definitely quote no more than €500 for this job. This would adequately cover me for my time and the usage of my software and training. My fee would increase if the turnover level increased but not by a whole lot. Dublin prices for Dublin accountants. Someone has to pay for the 5 series, house in Killiney and the golf club membership. A totally dormant audit exempt company would cost €350.
 
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