Looking for an accountant in Sydney

I have 4 IPs and a small business and I need an accountant to look after everything for me.

I'm very hands on and each year around tax time I submit a large excel spreadsheet detailing all business expenses / employee wages / wages to myself / property deductions etc. I like to fine-tune numbers to make sure I minimise tax and basically the accountant just formats and submits the data I give him. I'm pretty sure I already optimise my situation and I just need a tax agent to submit it for me.

For someone like me, how would a 'good' accountant add value to my situation?

For my situation, how much per year would it typically cost?

Any recommendations? I'm in Sydney.
 
I have 4 IPs and a small business and I need an accountant to look after everything for me.

I'm very hands on and each year around tax time I submit a large excel spreadsheet detailing all business expenses / employee wages / wages to myself / property deductions etc. I like to fine-tune numbers to make sure I minimise tax and basically the accountant just formats and submits the data I give him. I'm pretty sure I already optimise my situation and I just need a tax agent to submit it for me.

For someone like me, how would a 'good' accountant add value to my situation?

For my situation, how much per year would it typically cost?

Any recommendations? I'm in Sydney.

As a property focussed tax adviser I see a large range of client issues through SS. Many taxpayers over estimate or under estimate claims based on mistakes they consider don't exist. Or miss items altogether. They generally don't have full complete and details CGT info so they overpay CGT perhaps. Clients ask me a myriad of questions and I guide them - All part of the service. Any time.

This SS tax thread wouldn't exist if all taxpayers had the benefit of the years of professional study, experience and CPD that tax advisers have. That's why they use a tax adviser. Its like me..I go to a medical specialist and avoid doing my own research. I use a mechanic too.

One of the best pieces of advice a leading CEO shared with me. Get the best people around you. Listen to them and trust their judgement but challenge them and question them on their reasoning rather than seeking the information yourself. That's their job
 
Accounting, like medicine, is a fairly diverse profession. Although I'm a CPA qualified accountant (CFO in an organisation rather than a practicing accountant ) with over 25 years experience I can't make a living charging clients to do tax returns. That's fair enough as tax is a very specialised area and practitioners in that field pay damn high PI insurance to be in that field . Having said that I do my own tax (and my wife's and relo's) which is getting more complicated the more properties I own, so I too may bite the bullet and use a tax guy someday soon.
 
The PI Insurance isn't actually that bad. For a turnover between $500k to $1m your premiums would be between $1.5k to $3k

I reckon PI is fairly reasonable too. My broker tells me PI policy costs are under cost pressure as some insurers have pulled back. I dread to know what that means.
 
I reckon PI is fairly reasonable too. My broker tells me PI policy costs are under cost pressure as some insurers have pulled back. I dread to know what that means.

Interesting. I work in law and just met with our broker regarding top up PI cover for next year.

The various law societies require firms to be compulsorily covered for up to $2M . Above that you can select various layers of cover up to $100M which is picked up by various insurers worldwide, hence the term "top up cover".

Our top up premiums will drop around 15% next year with most of that reduction in the$2M to $20M layer - the layer where most claims outside compulsory cover fall. The compulsory cover of up to $2M will increase marginally.
 
As a property focussed tax adviser I see a large range of client issues through SS. Many taxpayers over estimate or under estimate claims based on mistakes they consider don't exist. Or miss items altogether. They generally don't have full complete and details CGT info so they overpay CGT perhaps. Clients ask me a myriad of questions and I guide them - All part of the service. Any time.

This SS tax thread wouldn't exist if all taxpayers had the benefit of the years of professional study, experience and CPD that tax advisers have. That's why they use a tax adviser. Its like me..I go to a medical specialist and avoid doing my own research. I use a mechanic too.

One of the best pieces of advice a leading CEO shared with me. Get the best people around you. Listen to them and trust their judgement but challenge them and question them on their reasoning rather than seeking the information yourself. That's their job

Thank you!

Besides the CGT aspect, is there any category of mistakes that often come up as a result of client inexperience?
 
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