Newbie Self Assessment Question

[Hucklebuck]

Hi All

First post so please go easy on me. I took the plunge & went Ltd earlier this year & appointed a new accountant to look after things. I was self employed until 2007 when I changed jobs & went back onto PAYE but the revenue asked me to keep submitting a self assessment for a further 5 years. I've asked my new accountant to process my Self Assessment for 10-11 & they have sent me a form to sign in which I authorise them to be my nominee & therefore any repayments go directly to them.
I'm slightly uneasy about this & was wondering if this was standard practice?
With my old accountant they would receive notice of any repayments but the cheque would always come directly to me.
Thanks in advance for any reply's

[Clare@InTouch]

Absolutely not. All repayments should go direct to you, there's no need for your accountant to touch them in my view.

[Greg@CapitalCity]

A lot do this

A lot of dedicated 'personal tax return services' collect the refund on behalf of clients, and then disburse to them. I can understand them doing this, because their fee is usually a % of the refund gained, and they probably feel they are more likely to collect their fee by doing it this way round.

For an accountant to be doing this though, it does seem a bit odd. Do they have a fee structure for personal tax returns pegged to the tax refund (if any) they get for you? I admit this would be a very peculiar set-up for an accountant, but you never know what is out there these days.

I would suggest you get your personal bank account details put into the last section of the tax return, so any tax refund payment goes straight to you. I fail to see how your accountant would have difficulty doing this, and if he/she does have a problem with it, I would view it as a warning flag that maybe you should deal with someone else.

[linles]

Hi All

First post so please go easy on me. I took the plunge & went Ltd earlier this year & appointed a new accountant to look after things. I was self employed until 2007 when I changed jobs & went back onto PAYE but the revenue asked me to keep submitting a self assessment for a further 5 years. I've asked my new accountant to process my Self Assessment for 10-11 & they have sent me a form to sign in which I authorise them to be my nominee & therefore any repayments go directly to them.
I'm slightly uneasy about this & was wondering if this was standard practice?
With my old accountant they would receive notice of any repayments but the cheque would always come directly to me.
Thanks in advance for any reply's

This is a very old fashioned way, not unusual a few years ago but not so common nowadays with online banking - nowadays we would only do this if requested by the client.