Many, if not all firms of accountants will offer a tax return service to their clients, often at wildly differing prices.
This article is not aimed at telling you where to go to get your tax return completed but more on how you can help to reduce the cost and also help make your accountant's life a little easier.
You may be aware that there are deadlines for filing returns with the HMRC, for example self assessment returns have to be with them by either the 31st October for paper submissions or the 31st of January for online submissions, so for the tax year ending 5th April 2013 paper returns have to be with the tax man by the 31st October 2013 and online by 31st January 2014.
For business (corporation tax) returns these normally have to be submitted within 12 months of the end of your business accounting year.
You can reduce the accountancy costs for submitting your tax returns in several ways :-
- Giving your accountant all the details in an orderly manner (not a shoe box or carrier bag full of papers)
- Making sure that everything is there and your accountant doesn't have to keep asking you questions and checking things with you.
- Submitting the paperwork early, remember the deadlines mentioned above? Accountants are extremely busy in both September and January and some will charge less in their quieter times.
All of the above points will not only possibly save you some money but, if you are due a refund will mean that you stand a chance of getting some money back from the tax man quicker. In addition you will make life much easier for your accountant - remember the deadlines mentioned above? Accountants are extremely busy in September/October and January and many of them will appreciate being able to spread the work out a little in their quieter times.
As for finding an accountant to help you with your tax returns, there are several things you can try, from asking friends who they use right through to looking on our directory for a local accountant using the search box at the top of this page, we will have some listed in your local area no matter if you live in London, Manchester or even Reading.