Tax Accountant Recommendation Please

[Arpoo]

Hi everyone.

We had not have great experience with accountants.

I had an accountant who charged like big firm accountancy but gave very conservative tax strategies. While, my wife who has only 1 rental in a simple LTC company was charged $1800 to do her annual books with another accountant! The most infuriating thing is that we were trying to explain to them from the start of our financial strategy and they insisted for a meeting only to come to the same conclusion....and they will charge us for the meeting time! We are financially educated (more than your joe blocks) and quite frankly we are looking for an accountant who is smarter than us.

Can someone please recommend us a great tax accountant within the Auckland region?

I guess we what need is an accountant who can give us tax optimisation advise and do our books at a reasonable rate, not give us financial advice. If they can give financial advice, then they better be top notch.

And does anyone have any experience with the following accountants in regards to property investments?
1) Gilligan Rowe & Associates
2) Street Smart Group
3) Thorne Accounting
4) Davidsons Accounting
5) D and D Accountants

Thanks ahead for feedback.

[Rosco]

Hi everyone.

We had not have great experience with accountants.

I had an accountant who charged like big firm accountancy but gave very conservative tax strategies. While, my wife who has only 1 rental in a simple LTC company was charged $1800 to do her annual books with another accountant! The most infuriating thing is that we were trying to explain to them from the start of our financial strategy and they insisted for a meeting only to come to the same conclusion....and they will charge us for the meeting time! We are financially educated (more than your joe blocks) and quite frankly we are looking for an accountant who is smarter than us.

Can someone please recommend us a great tax accountant within the Auckland region?

I guess we what need is an accountant who can give us tax optimisation advise and do our books at a reasonable rate, not give us financial advice. If they can give financial advice, then they better be top notch.

And does anyone have any experience with the following accountants in regards to property investments?
1) Gilligan Rowe & Associates
2) Street Smart Group
3) Thorne Accounting
4) Davidsons Accounting
5) D and D Accountants

Thanks ahead for feedback.

Hi Arpoo,

What about an accountant outside of Auckland? We specialise in property accounting, and you will see a number of posts on property talk from me, and property information on our website www.cswaikato.

I do travel to Auckland quite regularly, and will be up there within the next 2 weeks. We also use skype a lot with clients, and find this a great way to communicate. With todays technology, your accountant could be anywhere!

We are not the cheapest, but we are a lot cheaper then $1800 for LTC with one property.

If you still want to use an Auckland accountant, here is a few tips

- Make sure they specialise in property. I think if you look at Street Smart Group website and information, I think you will find that they do more business clients?
- Make sure they are chartered accountants, as this means they have regular professional development and training. CA's also get reviewed every few years, and generally are better than non CA's
- Try to get a firm that is not just one person, otherwise if they are on holiday or sick, you might not be able to get anything done. Also most firms use a review or double review process, so you need several people working on the accounts to do this
- Be careful of the cheap and nasty firms!

I find GRA to have great knowledge, and to give great advice. I would love to say that Matt and the team are idiots, but realistically they are leading the property accounting field in Auckland, and charge based on this.

Most accounting firms are quoting upfront for annual financial statements and tax return work, so you should know what the cost will be, before you begin.

Hopefully this helps

Ross

[klauster]

I removed GRA from my list. Even the big names go sometimes wrong. It comes back to individuals you can trust and make themselves available when you are in need. Location doesn’t matter in these days.

[Orkibi]

Thorne Accounting

i can recommend Tony and few friends who will recommend him too.

[Arpoo]

I removed GRA from my list. Even the big names go sometimes wrong. It comes back to individuals you can trust and make themselves available when you are in need. Location doesn’t matter in these days.

Hi Klauster.

Thanks for your feedback. Is there anyone in particular that you can recommend?

[Arpoo]

i can recommend Tony and few friends who will recommend him too.

Thanks Orkibi. He seems quite popular. Is it just because he is quite reasonably priced?

[Re@der]

Hi Arpoo
I live in Wellington and had a telephone meeting with Ross. I sent him information in a coherant form previously, we discussed the subject and he gave me a number of options with advantages and disadvantages and we quickly decided in the meeting which was the best way forward for me. I was well satisfied with the cost and performance.

[Arpoo]

Hi ArpooI live in Wellington and had a telephone meeting with Ross. I sent him information in a coherant form previously, we discussed the subject and he gave me a number of options with advantages and disadvantages and we quickly decided in the meeting which was the best way forward for me. I was well satisfied with the cost and performance.

Thanks Doug for the recommendation. How long were you with Ross may I ask?

[BigRedDog]

I removed GRA from my list. Even the big names go sometimes wrong. It comes back to individuals you can trust and make themselves available when you are in need. Location doesn’t matter in these days.

I agree location doesn't matter these days.
I haven't even met my accountant and we live in the same city!

Can I ask why you dropped GRA?
So far I have only heard good things about them.

[epsomtax]

The bigger the office and the flashier the suburb, the higher the charge. GRA have carved out for themselves a fine reputation as Property Accountants and, accordingly, one expects to pay for this. Street Smart are general accountants. As for the rest, can't comment.

Property accounting is not rocket science, but it is a good idea to go with someone who is focused on this niche.

Our charges would be around half that of what your wife was charged, but then we don't have big swanky offices and high overheads, so no need to charge like a wounded bull. We are in Auckland and focus on investment property accounts. Google epsomtax to find us.

[epsomtax]

May also be worth chatting to Goodlife Advice in Ellerslie. They are AFAs and deal with several accountants.

[klauster]

I’m quite specific in my accounting needs and Tony and Ross have been a good match.
Being involved you’ll find out easily who delivers, if not you pay when it is too late. That applies the PM, lawyers and accountants alike.

[Arpoo]

The bigger the office and the flashier the suburb, the higher the charge. GRA have carved out for themselves a fine reputation as Property Accountants and, accordingly, one expects to pay for this. Street Smart are general accountants. As for the rest, can't comment.

Property accounting is not rocket science, but it is a good idea to go with someone who is focused on this niche.

Our charges would be around half that of what your wife was charged, but then we don't have big swanky offices and high overheads, so no need to charge like a wounded bull. We are in Auckland and focus on investment property accounts. Google epsomtax to find us.

Thanks for your post Epsomtax. Are you able to tell me how different you are from other accountants who also focused on investment property accounts?

[Arpoo]

I’m quite specific in my accounting needs and Tony and Ross have been a good match.
Being involved you’ll find out easily who delivers, if not you pay when it is too late. That applies the PM, lawyers and accountants alike.

Thanks for that klauster. What do you mean exactly by "being involved"?

I'm kind of hoping the trial-and-error method to find a suitable accountant. None of the 3 we had so far is suitable.

[klauster]

Arpoo, trial-and-error might be risky especially in an IRD audit. You need to understand your obligations, for being involved – the IRD offers online tools for record keeping e.g. filing tax returns, GST returns, employers schedules, etc – at least you might consider logical checks. For instance the numbers for rentals on the IR3R have to correspond with the tax returns (IR3, IR4, IR6).
And the IRD update service via email is very helpful.