Do you want to risk getting your tax wrong, and possibly incurring penalties or even getting a criminal record? Or worry about what is due to happen when, what you should be paying and whether that tax demand is correct, or whether you’ve set your business up in the most efficient way?
Peace of mind
As an accountant, I want to sell peace of mind to my clients. Yes, I deal with all the technical worries that have taken years of training to get to grips with, but that is taken as a given for a professional person. What I really want to achieve is clients who know what records they need to keep and when they need to give them to me, with that being the entire extent of their worries, leaving me to deal with the rest. OK, I accept I’ve a way to go, and writing this 7 days before the tax return deadline, I still have a handful of ‘head in the sand’ clients who’ve not given me any information at all; no matter how good your accountant, we’re not clairvoyant!
Applied experience
From a technical point of view, an experienced accountant will be able to advise about your tax and finances; not just the black and white rules, but how they affect you and the way you personally work. They’ll be able to register you with HMRC, ensure you meet deadlines, warn you of tax liabilities and generally deal with the day to day tax work.