The return takes an hour. The notice two years later takes eleven
A practice that files carefully because it is the same people who will have to answer for it in 2028.
What we do
Four things. The highlighted one is where most of the year actually goes.
Income tax returns
Salaried, business, professional and capital gains. Quoted before we start, filed with the working attached, and every document you sent kept where it can be found in four years rather than in an inbox.
Notices and scrutiny
A notice answered by the person who filed the return, from a file assembled the same week it went in. This is the work that justifies the rest and it is the reason we file more slowly than the market does.
GST — registration and monthly
Registration, monthly returns and the reconciliation nobody enjoys. We will tell you when your turnover genuinely does not need us monthly, which is a conversation that costs us a retainer and happens anyway.
Books, for businesses that need them
Monthly accounting for firms too small for an in-house accountant and too complicated for a spreadsheet. It is the least glamorous line here and it is what makes the March filing take a day instead of a fortnight.
The number the practice is built around
The file that answers a 2028 notice is assembled now
Filing a return is quick and almost anybody can do it, which is why the market price for one keeps falling and why so much of this trade is now a form-filling service. What that price does not include is the part that matters: a notice arriving two years later about a figure somebody entered without keeping the paper behind it. We file slowly, we keep the working, and we assume every return will be questioned.
How a return goes
Five steps. The last one is the only one that distinguishes anybody in this trade.
A quote, before anything
A figure for the work, agreed in writing, based on what you actually have rather than on a rate card. Complicated years cost more and we say so at the start rather than at the end.
Documents, and a list of what is missing
You send what you have; we send back a specific list of what is not there. Most of the delay in this trade is a vague request for "the remaining documents" nobody can act on.
A draft you can read
Every figure with a note saying where it came from. It is longer than the return and it exists so that you can disagree with something before it is filed rather than after.
Filed, with the working attached
The return goes in and the working file is closed the same week — statements, invoices, valuations, the lot. This is the step the market price does not include.
Whatever arrives afterwards
A notice, a rectification, a scrutiny. Answered by the person who filed it, from the file assembled in step four, and not billed again for anything we should have got right the first time.
From clients
A scrutiny notice came for a year filed four years earlier. They pulled the file, answered it in a fortnight and did not charge me for it. My previous accountant would have needed a month to work out what he had done.
The draft came with a note under every figure explaining where it came from. I found a mistake in what I had sent them, which is presumably the whole point of showing me.
They told me my turnover did not justify monthly bookkeeping with them and to come back at a bigger number. That cost them a retainer and is why they have had the rest of my work for six years.
Questions
Four, and the first is the one everybody actually rings about.
I have received a notice. What now?
Bring it in, including if we did not file the return. The first conversation costs nothing and usually establishes within twenty minutes whether it is routine, whether there is a deadline you are close to, and whether it needs somebody at all. Most notices are not the emergency they read like, and a few are worse.
You are more expensive than the online filing sites.
Yes, considerably, and for a straightforward salaried return with one Form 16 those sites are a reasonable choice — we will say so. What you are paying us for is the file behind the return and the person who answers for it later, and neither of those is worth much until something goes wrong.
Do you do it in March or all year?
All year, and we take on almost nobody new in February and March. A practice that triples its volume in eight weeks does it with seasonal help, and the file quality in those returns is precisely the thing this page is about.
What do you need from me?
A specific list, sent once, of the documents for your situation rather than a generic checklist. The most common cause of delay in this trade is an accountant asking vaguely for "the rest" and a client having no way to know what is missing.
Talk to us
Including about a notice we did not cause. That first conversation is free and often ends with us telling you it does not need anybody.
We take on almost nobody in February and March
A practice that triples its volume in eight weeks does it with seasonal help, and the file quality in those returns is exactly what this page is about. Come in June.