Hi - has anyone received any quotes from accountants for meeting with them to discuss the LAQC changes and new election rules please? I'm wondering how much to budget. Thanks.
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Accountant fees for LTCs
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We had a 90 minute phone meeting with Matthew Gilligan of Gilligan Rowe last night (www.gra.co.nz).
When we booked they were charging $150 + GST for this and this was promoted as being half price.
We also had a couple of other questions that he and one of his staff answered during the meeting. It was a question I had asked our local accountant and he was going to have to take advice to answer it.
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If you just have a simple LAQC at the moment and know that you want to transition to LTC then I'd recommend to simply fill out the IRD862 form your self:
Look-through company election IR862High resolution Fractal Art on quality canvas: www.FractalArt.co.nz
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Laqc - ltc
We have a very simple LAQC which will still make a loss even after depreciation law changes. We had decided ourselves after doing our homework that changing to an LTC was in our best interest. We hadn't quite got around to filing the IR862 when we received a letter from our accountant, advising us that in all his worldly knowledge it would be in our best interest to change our LAQC to a LTC (we had already came to the same conclusion) and with this enclosed a filled in IR862 for us to sign and attached to that, a whopping $402.50 invoice, due immediately.
Is this ok to do? I rang him to discuss the charges and his response was: We have had to do a lot of training on this topic and have attended various seminars to give our clients the best advice, this charge is recovering those seminar fees. He also added that two other offices he had spoken to were charging anywhere between $500 to $750 so he believed this was reasonable.
Has anyone else had the same issue? I am hesitant to pay the invoice as he did not ask me if I would like him to do this for us in the first place. Shouldn't we have been approached first and advised on the costs associated with his assessment?
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Tony Thorne is charging a lot less and has provided a lot of information/advice before asking for any money, but that is within the context of an existing relationship.
Don't know what he'd charge for a review and recommendation for a new client.DFTBA
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I would ask the accountant how they have come to that conclusion without talking to you first?
What happens if you were planning on selling all your rentals tomorrow, would the change the advice?
What happens if you had just received some inhertiance of $500,000, and all your rentals were becoming debt free?
I'm really struggling with how a professional advisor could advise on this change without talking to you. The key thing is trying to establish how the rentals will operate in the future, and without discussing your circumstances and plans, its basically impossible!
Plus courses, seminar and the professionals training is their problem, not yours.
And, they should have definetly talked about the fee and process with you. We have been encouraging all our clients to meet with me, but if someone doesn't want to, we can't force them, and definetly can't charge them for something they don't want.
I'm really a bit shocked, and disappointed that a professional would charge this much, and not have covered all the bases.
RossBook a free chat here
Ross Barnett - Property Accountant
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When transfering LTC shares to Family Trust, from IRD point of view, would QV value is fine for each property, which we heard is normally $40per property or do we need the desktop valuation, which costs $185, or what 's the difference between them both, if someone can shed some light, much obliged.Last edited by Anita; 16-03-2011, 12:36 PM.
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The $40 one is machine generated. The $185 is human generated (and I wouldn't be so disingenuous as to suggest that they run the machine generator, print the report and send it to you with an invoice!)
AFAIK, the desktop one is acceptable, the e-valuer one is not.DFTBA
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My accountant sent out a letter explaining the review process, and included a comprehensive questionnaire covering current situation and future plans. The letter stated up front that this review and subsequent recommendations would cost $195.Lisa
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Hourly Rate
How about asking your Accountant what their hourly rate is and if they bill per 15 or 30 min lots or by the hour e.g. 5 mins over the hour = 2 hours billable.
This may assist in comparing apples with apples when comparing the fees charged for the service.
Also consider it may not be your Accountant actually doing the task but a junior or an admin person in a lot of cases especially in the larger firms. Even if the Accountants review the work of their employees - the onus is always on you to ensure all workings are correct irregardless of which professional you use - so you need to have a reasonable understanding of the task and what it should result in etc both from a tax and legal perspective. Ignorance is not bliss.
Personally I am happy to pay more for Professionals that are at the top of their game - they are CA's and keep up with the training, legislation and in a broader sense - their business is successful and has good systems (not a whole lot of client files all over the floor etc).
Go visit their office - if it's a mess - so are they IMHO and I'd be running out of there quick smart.
Cheers,
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