Looking for accountant advisor as permie

[jds 1981]

Any recommendations?
Gone permie, mvl so income all a bit topsy turvy and I want to make sure I don't do something stupid and have to pay a lot more tax than I needed to. Would also like my tax return completed too... Based in East London if that makes a difference.

[northernladuk]

Speak to Maslins. They do accountancy and run MVL online so will know exactly what the score is.

[jds 1981]

They're doing my mvl, but seem to specialise in contractor accountants so not 100% sure about using them.

[ladymuck]

What is special about your circumstances that means they can't help? You're a contractor moving to perm, yes? I guess if you had a huge property portfolio, loads of shares and other investments and pensions to juggle then you'd need more specialist advice but, if as I suspect, you just want a bit of help making sure your last SATR as a company director is filled out correctly then a contractor specialist may be sufficient.

I guess the cost of a phone call is too much now you're on a salary

[Maslins]

Normally we'd suggest whichever accountant assisted with your Ltd Co would also make sense to do the personal tax return(s) shortly after closing the company. They'll have all your normal details (tax references etc), will know details of any income taken from the final period of trading of the company, and should be capable of doing an SA return declaring liquidation distributions and possibly new salary/whatever. On the basis they may well be doing this many months after your company would have closed, they may charge a separate fee for this, maybe £100 or so.

Following that, would you still need to do an SA return? Why would you want an accountant beyond that?

[northernladuk]

I guess the cost of a phone call is too much now you're on a salary

That's a good point. I'm going to change my standard advice to 'Have you given Maslins a call?'

[jds 1981]

SATR was filed for last year and company closed. Concern now is that I'm getting requests for annual allowance information from payroll for pension contribution calculations. I think that my annual allowance for this year will be 4k but I'd like someone to confirm and advise whether my chosen pension contributions are sensible accordingly, also due to MVL proceeds this year will want someone sensible to fill out my SATR & possibly a few other things.
Basically I think I need someone more knowledgeable than me for some hand holding...

[ladymuck]

So you need a pension adviser, not a tax adviser?

[Maslins]

SATR was filed for last year and company closed. Concern now is that I'm getting requests for annual allowance information from payroll for pension contribution calculations. I think that my annual allowance for this year will be 4k but I'd like someone to confirm and advise whether my chosen pension contributions are sensible accordingly, also due to MVL proceeds this year will want someone sensible to fill out my SATR & possibly a few other things.
Basically I think I need someone more knowledgeable than me for some hand holding...

I imagine most accountants will back away from giving much guidance on the pensions side of things, and unsure what your "possibly a few other things" are.

My view would be:
- get accountant that helped with Ltd Co and previous SATRs to also help with SATR declaring liquidation distributions,
- maybe speak to an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) if you want non trivial guidance on the pensions side of things, or try to figure that side out yourself by asking your pension provider/employer questions to get the relevant data combined with a bit of Googling.