Favourite Contractor Accountants
Many UK contractors have their favourite contractor accountants but what makes a good contractor accountancy company?
When you are looking for a good accountant, look for value rather than price.
It’s not whay you pay. It’s what you get for your money.
Low Cost Accountancy Firms
Some accountancy companies provide a basic service at a low price and the contractor has to do most of the work.
Some contractors prefer it that way. They want to do as much of the book keeping as they can, so that they can keep their accountancy costs low.
Others hate book keeping and want to concentrate on their own careers and would rather that the accountant did as much as he, or she, can.
Specialist Contractor Accountant
They are happy to pay a premium, to keep all that nasty figurework as far away as possible from themselves.
You want an Accountant to know as much about the field that your are in, e.g. IT Contracting, as they can.
You would be better finding an accountant who has many IT contractors on his, or her, books.
Types of Accountants for Contractors
There’s probably four types of Accountants nowadays.
Firstly, there are the low-cost no-frills type of Accountant who is doesn’t cost much but doesn’t do much. The contractor does his, or her, own book keeping to keep the costs low.
Then there is the accountant or accountancy firm who do a lot of the work for the contractors. This would be the norm.
Gold Service Contractor Accountants
In rcent years, a third type of Accountant or Accountancy firm has sprung up.
These firms do virtually everything for a contractor except the contracting.
It is almost like an umbrella company equivalent where the accountancy firm look after the contractor, not from cradle to grave, but from Timesheet to Payment.
All these Contactor Accountancy companies need are the time sheet from the contractor and the receipts that they can offset against tax.
The Accountancy Company invoices the agency or client, just like a PAYE umbrella company would, and pays the contractor.
They do all the admin, including the VAT, and the end of year accounts as well as all the book keeping in between.
They obviously charge more for this service.
Tax Efficient Limited Company Accountants
The fourth type of Contractor Accountancy company, is very new to the contractor market. They are called Tax Efficient Limited Companies.
These companies use very efficient tax planning to cut the contractors’ tax bills.
The contractors uses a limited company but the service company handles the money in such a was so that the tax bill is as small as it can be.
