Closing Limited company.

[stevea]

I was wondering if anyone has experience of the price charged for this as most of the accounting companies for contractors do not post this on their website. I asked one company and they said it ranges from £300 to £700 depending on the timing of the year.
Only reason I am asking is I have a contract which may or may not last only 6 months so I may need to do this and I was looking for a firm quote.
Tks.

[Contreras]

I was wondering if anyone has experience of the price charged for this as most of the accounting companies for contractors do not post this on their website. I asked one company and they said it ranges from £300 to £700 depending on the timing of the year.
Only reason I am asking is I have a contract which may or may not last only 6 months so I may need to do this and I was looking for a firm quote.
Tks.

The bulk of the work is year end accounts and any monthly fee is this year end cost split across 12 payments, plus a small amount for managing VAT/PAYE and answering questions through the year.

Closing the company would require accounts as per year end. Expect any fee for this to be in the same ballpark as the remainder of monthly payments that you would have had, minus a bit for not needing VAT/PAYE in following months, plus a bit for the extra admin of closing the co.

For only 6 months using an umbrella co. may be more efficient so definitely consider this. Or if you are set on Ltd then strike a deal on fees disclosing your plans in advance.

Either way, for a single contract client co would be your permanent workplace so T&S not claimable tax free.

[NibblyPig]

Just out of interest, why do people close their company?

I started an LTD for contracting years ago but failed to get any contracts as the market was dire, so I ended up in permieville for a bit before switching back to contracting. I left the company open the whole time and just filed dormant accounts.

[Maslins]

Assuming this is just for tax tidy up then strike off, rather than formal liquidation?

Fee will typically depend upon how long someone's been a client. If you've been there a few years and want to close shortly after a year end, if you were with us there wouldn't be any additional fee to close. if on the other hand you've just started, or just joined from another accountant and a few months in decide to close, yes, there'd be an additional fee.

I imagine that's why you won't find many officially disclosed fees for this kind of thing. If stuff generally is already "on top of" and tidy, there's just a few fairly easy forms to do. Problem is quite often there's a fair bit of tidying up to do first.

@Nibblypig - a couple of reasons:
- if a permie and anticipate being for the foreseeable future, why keep it? Whilst annual dormant accounts might not be that big a deal, it's an additional thing you need to do with no immediate benefit, and hefty fines if you're late/mess it up.
- potentially tax breaks for taking out final funds on closure.