Pricing - SmallBiz Accounts

HOW MUCH WILL A DENTIST PAY AN ACCOUNTANT?

How much you pay your accountant will be determined mainly by:

Whether you’re operating as a sole trader or have a limited company
The value you get from your accountant

Sole trader or limited company

The biggest influence on price is whether you’re either working as a sole trader or through your own limited company.

A limited company provides more opportunity for tax savings, but its more complicated.

You’ll need more services and accounts are more detailed. Therefore, you’ll pay your accountant more for the increased level of service.

Some accountants will give you a single package price for all the services you need, or you may get a breakdown of the price for each:

Annual accounts and company tax return
Payroll
Dividend documents
Personal tax return
Company secretarial including confirmation statement
Fee protection for tax investigations

Your accounts and tax affairs will be simpler if you’re a sole trader. The services you’ll be provided with are:

Annual accounts
Personal tax return
Fee protection for tax investigations

Your accounts & tax may be more complicated, and therefore you may pay more, when:

You work at more than one practice
There are a high number of transactions in your business bank account
You pay a salary and/or dividends to your spouse
You have other income or gains to add to your tax return

Level of service

At the most basic level, an accountant will take the information you’ve given them, and use it to produce a set of accounts and tax returns for you (and your company where relevant). They’ll then tell you what your tax bill is and when to pay it.

With a better level of service, your accountant considers whether you’ve included all the expenses that you could, and specifically requests further details so they can maximise the deductions against tax for you.

A good accountant will be looking towards the future for you. They will look at your current situation and make suggestions to save you money, such as setting up a limited company or using a cash basis. They’ll consider wider issues, such as retaining child benefits and working with a financial adviser to protect your income and plan for your retirement.

They will let you know in advance of your tax payments due and send you specific reminders with instructions of when and how to pay your taxes. They will make you feel you can rely on them and everything possible is being done to improve your finances.

An accountant specialising in dentistry will have a good knowledge and understanding of the issues affecting dentists.

At SmallBiz Accounts, because of the many factors, we don’t give a single price that would apply to all dentists.

We’ll discuss your personal situation and, using pricing software, create a bespoke proposal that shows you all the services you need and the prices of each. We can then add or remove services as you need, or your circumstances change.

When do I pay my accountant?

Traditionally you would have paid an annual invoice for the services provided to you after the accounts and tax returns have been prepared

However, many accountants now ask for monthly payments for your accountancy and tax services, which is how we operate at SmallBiz Accounts.

You’ll normally start to pay monthly at the beginning of your accounting year. If you join an accountant part way through the year, then you’ll have a catch-up payment to cover the part of the year before you engaged your accountant.

There may be one-off costs at times, for services such as registering as self-employed, forecasting your tax liabilities, setting up a company, share changes, etc.

Example when changing accountants and moving from annual billing to monthly billing

Davina is a dentist will a limited company with a December 2021 year-end, she:

engages a new accountant in January 2022 and also wants the new accountant to prepare the 2021 accounts
pays the new accountant monthly from January 2022 for the 2022 accounts and
pays them a one-off payment for the 2021 accounts once they have been completed

Davina will for both the FY21 and FY22 within the same 12 months.

Plus VAT?

Unfortunately, dentists can’t reclaim any VAT on their expenses. There are some smaller accountants that are not VAT registered but most accountants charge VAT. When you get a quote from an accountant, always check to see if it includes the VAT, as you don’t want to be hit with an unexpected extra 20% on your bill.