How much does it cost for an accountant to prepare your Personal Tax Return and file it with HMRC on your behalf?
This is a natural question but one that can be difficult to answer. I will try to do my best to explain some of the influencing criteria:
💡 Complexity Matters
🔹 Simple returns: You are a Basic rate taxpayer with a single income source? Relatively straightforward.
🔹 Complex returns: Multiple income sources, property income, dividends, capital gains, foreign income? More time and expertise is required.
💡 Types of Income
Each additional income stream adds complexity:
🔹 Multiple employments and benefits
🔹 Self-employment income
🔹 Rental income
🔹 Investment income – dividends from your own company and shares portfolio
🔹 Capital gains
🔹 Foreign income
💡 Other stuff going on
Again, each one adds to the preparation and checking time
🔹 Pension contributions
🔹 Gift Aid
🔹 SEIS/EIS or other claims
🔹 Student loan
🔹 High-income child benefit charge
💡 Timing is Everything
🔹 Early bird: You provide your info well before 31 October.
🔹 Last-minute rush: You are pushing against the 31 January deadline? This will automatically increase costs.
💡 Quality of Records
🔹 Well-organized, complete records = less time and lower cost
🔹 Disorganized, incomplete records = more time sorting and querying = higher cost
The best thing you can do is look your advisor in the eye and say, “I am going to give you the bestest cleanest records ever and do so by 30 September.” Just remember you will be found out in year 1 if you don’t do that 🙃
💡 The Advisor’s Approach
🔹 Some advisors will just ‘bang the numbers’ into their tax software for the lowest cost
Others
🔹 Consider tax minimisation strategies
🔹 Think about future tax planning
🔹 Carefully check tax calculations
🔹 Explain any extra tax liabilities
The right accountant doesn’t cost you money. They save you money.
Bottom line? Tax return fees typically range from £200 for basic returns to £1,000+ for complex situations.
Remember that your accountant is probably quoting you the net of VAT figure, as that is what they will actually receive. But for you, you need to add the VAT. So it will cost you £240 – £1,200.
How much does it cost for an accountant to prepare your Personal Tax Return and file it with HMRC on your behalf?
This is a natural question but one that can be difficult to answer. I will try to do my best to explain some of the influencing criteria:
💡 Complexity Matters
🔹 Simple returns: You are a Basic rate taxpayer with a single income source? Relatively straightforward.
🔹 Complex returns: Multiple income sources, property income, dividends, capital gains, foreign income? More time and expertise is required.
💡 Types of Income
Each additional income stream adds complexity:
🔹 Multiple employments and benefits
🔹 Self-employment income
🔹 Rental income
🔹 Investment income – dividends from your own company and shares portfolio
🔹 Capital gains
🔹 Foreign income
💡 Other stuff going on
Again, each one adds to the preparation and checking time
🔹 Pension contributions
🔹 Gift Aid
🔹 SEIS/EIS or other claims
🔹 Student loan
🔹 High-income child benefit charge
💡 Timing is Everything
🔹 Early bird: You provide your info well before 31 October.
🔹 Last-minute rush: You are pushing against the 31 January deadline? This will automatically increase costs.
💡 Quality of Records
🔹 Well-organized, complete records = less time and lower cost
🔹 Disorganized, incomplete records = more time sorting and querying = higher cost
The best thing you can do is look your advisor in the eye and say, “I am going to give you the bestest cleanest records ever and do so by 30 September.” Just remember you will be found out in year 1 if you don’t do that 🙃
💡 The Advisor’s Approach
🔹 Some advisors will just ‘bang the numbers’ into their tax software for the lowest cost
Others
🔹 Consider tax minimisation strategies
🔹 Think about future tax planning
🔹 Carefully check tax calculations
🔹 Explain any extra tax liabilities
The right accountant doesn’t cost you money. They save you money.
Bottom line? Tax return fees typically range from £200 for basic returns to £1,000+ for complex situations.
Remember that your accountant is probably quoting you the net of VAT figure, as that is what they will actually receive. But for you, you need to add the VAT. So it will cost you £240 – £1,200.