immac

What is your accountant charging and what does he do for his money?
I am particularly interested in services and costs for companies set up to buy property - non trading companies. How are his/her charges presented to you?

Ian

Karyn UK

It varies from accountant to accountant, some charge monthly, mine happens to charge every six months, but then my company is working.

I would look into this very carefully as I believe I read somewhere that there were changes being made to close the loophole that allowed people to buy in restricted areas via FDI companies which would never trade. I can't for the life of me remember where I read it but I remember thinking at the time that the reasoning made sense - the law that set up the FDI companies was to encourage commerce not to be used as a way of buying property but not trading and therefore not contributing to the economy.

The main issue in this instance would be, not the accountancy fees, but the repercussions in selling property out of the company and the tax implications of that. If you have no plans to sell but plan instead to just hold the property for a long time within a company that shows no other business transactions then you are likely to be investigated at some point and whilst you may not be doing anything illegal its a pain to be investigated for stuff like that.

Karyn

mushtaq

We pay 100 YTL a month to the accountant, for which he does very little, one of the things I have found very difficult is to get good accountancy advice and service.

I think most accountants (the ones I have had dealings with at least) tend more to be book keepers then accountants.

Still looking for a descent accountant, because I don't feel comfortable getting different advice on different days.

Damian

I have set up a limited company which enabled me to buy a property freehold in a military zone. i intend to rent the property out so there will be a little accountancy to be done.

My accountant is wanting £720 per year to administer the whole thing. He does seem pretty compotent, but i run my own business in the U K and my accountant only charged me £450 for my annual admin fee including tax return.

So i dont feel £750 is particularly good value.
What say you?

mushtaq

The accountancy fees are very high compared to my normal accountant here in UK too, they all seem to be high (some are just a rip-off, just because they can get away with it)

But overall very poor value for money in my opinion, I get much better service and advice for the money I pay in UK.

Karyn UK

I pay about £850 a year just for the accountancy costs but that includes in addition to the actual book keeping, managing the staff's monthly wages, unlimited meetings, assisting and liaising with official authorities, mediating disputes, drafting contracts and advising on tax issues.

Our UK accountant actually has less actual work to do as the accounts are mainly compuerised and just some minor work is needed on them.

Our accountant here is readily accessible, well placed on the Chamber of Commerce, has excellent internal and international links, is well travelled, well respected, helpful, mature and patient. I really like working with him and have found him essential in this first year in business here.

I cannot say the same for my UK accountant who although a specialist is flighty, disorganised, hard to get hold of and is far more interested in talking politics than actually doing the accounts (which are probably quite boring, but still!).

Karyn

Helenm150

Karyn

Sounds reasonable for the amount of work he/she is doing for you. Do you think I could take contact details?

Regards


Helen

DarrenK

Make sure you distinguish between an accountant and a Mali 'Mushavirlik' - the latter are responsible to the authorities on your behalf for all filings etc - not accountants- so make sure you are dealing with them for all official matters - otherwise you will end up paying for one anyway. Sometimes a good accountant will have a relationshup with a MM that will avail you of the MM's services cost effectively. Otherwise- caveat emptor.

immac

I would like to bring this up again!
I am interested to hear about anyone that does this themselves to save the costs and what is involved.
Also up to date costs on bookkeeping or accountants for non- trading company.

Ian