I had a call with Noel, a potential client, on Wednesday, who I met at a Google seminar in the Theatre Royal. He is a Kilkenny man like me and interested in hurling too so we have a good discussion on the injustice of the Richie Hogan red card! He has a number of rental properties and was looking for a quote to look after his tax return which he had done himself in the previous few years. I got this out to him very quickly and haven’t heard from him since. That is ok he’s a very busy many. But this got me thinking. Why would or why should he come to us to do his Tax return? What value can we bring to him that another tax advisor couldn’t bring so this got me thinking as to what we do for a guy like Noel and why we do it?
Here are some of the things that we do
Send out a tax return checklist. The reason we do that is that we want to cover off as many of the questions and areas on the tax return that are relevant to you. We could be doing your tax return 12 months or more after some transaction has happened and you may have forgotten about it. The questions are there so we can file as comprehensive a tax return as we possibly can based on the information you give us. This protects you. The more information we have about you and your circumstances the better we are able to advise you
The tax return is compiled by an experienced tax professional so the person drafting the computations and tax return has experience and knowledge and has done this many times before and is qualified to do a great job for you
We check that you have claimed all your tax credits and many credits are often missed when doing your own return such as home carers, earned income, home renovation incentive, college fees, medical insurance paid by your employer and medical expenses
We claim any expenses that you are entitled to that will reduce your tax liability such as pension payments and flat rate expenses if you work in certain sectors
We claim any deductions that we can such as capital allowances that reduce your trading profits, capital allowances to reduce your rental profits, income protection payments, and nursing home fees
We write off the costs of doing the tax return for you as much as we can whether that is in your accounts, as a deductible expense against rental income or as a deduction in your Capital Gains Tax computations.
We review the figures and tax return. This review will be done by a very experienced tax professional so you will have two sets of eyes on your return. Often this review can lead to additional savings or corrections that will benefit you. Sometimes this review won’t lead to savings but can lead to something being picked up that needs to be fixed and not just for the year we are working on but for prior tax years too.
We advise of ways to save tax after the end of the tax year. This is usually be means of pension where you can make a top up pension contribution or have some pensions payments made in the current tax year backdated to the previous tax year
We will advise you of what your final tax liability is and what tax you have already paid so you are aware of what the balance due is and when the payment date is. We will also advise you about preliminary tax for the current year based on your tax liability for the previous year .We process the tax return electronically and make all payments electronically but we never process a payment without your prior approval. You know what you have to pay and when you have to pay so there are no surprises
We get your tax return submitted on time every time provided you give us the information on time. This eliminates any surcharges being applied and makes sure you are tax compliant. If you are not compliant this can affect you in other ways such as not having tax clearance so tax repayments are held up, grants are not paid and finance and or licences are more difficult to get
Why do we take the above approach? The reason is we enjoy doing quality work for clients who want their tax returns and computations to be right. We don’t believe in claiming things that can’t be claimed or doing something that could come back and haunt you down the line. Most people want their tax affairs to be in order. We all pay way too much tax to Revenue so we don’t want you to be in a position where Revenue come calling in a few years’ time for more tax, interest on that tax and a penalty on top of that. We want to protect you so that you can sleep easy knowing that if Revenue come calling you have nothing to be worried about. We are not saying this is the best way or that we are great but this is just our way.
You will be more relaxed and less stressed so will have more time for yoga on the beach.
