My Accountant took over six weeks to prepare my tax ??

Speak about frustration !!

Sat down with my accountant more than six weeks ago, and have only just received my final figures today for logdement of my tax return.

The reason for my frustration is because I'm in the process of apply for new loans, and have told my MB and bank lender what my gross income will be for 2008/2009. Which was calculated while I was with my Accountant six weeks ago.

How stupid do I feel !!:confused::confused: Because I've told them all that my gross will be ( x ) amount. To find out today that his original figures weren't correct, and that my gross income is $7,000 less than what he had quickly worked out on paper. I should mention here that I'm also a sole trader and was hopeing to go for a full doc loan and not have to pay about $7000 in LMI to refinance and that my next appliciation was looking really tight even with the original figures.

However, it would seem that this is not so unusual to have to wait for weeks, even months. My MB told me that he sat down with his accountant last year in September, and didn't receive his final figures for lodgement until April this year. What's that ? About six months. Crazy :eek:

Anyone else had similar delays ????
 
Six weeks is about right. And that was with fully reconciled MYOB books. Are you cross about that or the fact you miscalculated your taxable income. None of this seems to be the accountant's fault to be honest. Accountants can only give an estimate until they have really gone through all the deductions and depreciation.
 
My MB told me that he sat down with his accountant last year in September, and didn't receive his final figures for lodgement until April this year. What's that ? About six months. Crazy :eek:

Anyone else had similar delays ????

Yes - About six months with fully reconciled Quickbooks!

This year when I meet accountant I will be asking for my tax to be done by a set date.


Sheryn
 
Hi Pushka,

I guess I was expecting it to be done in about two or three weeks like every other year.

It probably depends on the time of the year - you may have lodged them at a time when everyone else lodged theirs. I still think that 6 weeks is pretty good.
 
Wow this post is certainly very interesting to me.

As accountants ourselves, out work turnover is 1 week for sole traders and individuals and upto 3 weeks for companies. 6 months is ludicrous.

You need to know what tax position you are in so you can budget for it upto the final extension date the tax agent has been granted and not as a last minute rush OR use and invest the refund elsewhere and not lost/idle until you send an email to the accountant following up/hurrying them up.
 
I absolutely agree Fletchtax. Concidering I had everything set out that a 5 year could almost lodge my tax return.

Pushka, how can you say that it's not the acountants fault?? It's his business, and it was him that told me what the expected gross earnings will be.

Anyone in business who takes on to much will have customers complaining. Who likes to wait an hour to be served at a restaurant, or six weeks to have their car repaired. Surely it only takes one or two hours tops to prepare my tax. Why would anyone in business take on more work than they can handle, just to loose all credibilty?
 
If you think your return was so easy to prepare why didn't you follow it up weeks ago? Our office would complete a sole trader return in a couple of hours providing all the information was there. A week tops if we're busy.
 
Pushka, how can you say that it's not the acountants fault?? It's his business, and it was him that told me what the expected gross earnings will be.?

Because if he told you that at the meeting of handing over all your receipts then it was a preliminary estimate based on what you told him! How could he sort through all your receipts, work out depreciation, before he had even seen all your documentation, confirm that all is in order, and give you an idea of your income.
 
I appreciate your thoughts Pushka. But I'm not sure why you think I would hand my accountant over 3000 receipts for him to sort out. Is that what you do? Take your documents to your accountant in a shoe box? I know my father inlaw does that !!

I just give a summary of my expences. Total fuel costs, total interest paid, total of materials purchased, total business expences ( insurance, registration, advertising) etc.

I then even add all them together for him ?:eek::eek:
 
I appreciate your thoughts Pushka. But I'm sure why you think I would hand my accountant about over 3000 receipts. I just give a summary of my expences. Total fuel costs, total interest paid, total of materials purchased, total business expences ( insurance, registration, advertising) etc.

I then even add all them together for him ?:eek::eek:

But some of these items (eg materials purchased) may need to be depreciated over a number of years, and not simply subtracted from the overall income. They might go into the LVP, or be larger capital items to be depreciated over a longer time. And to do this takes a few record checks as you need to add it to the previous years LVP. Advertising is not always a deduction but might be considered a 'startup cost' for instance. You would have car expenses; your car would be depreciated for instance. It just isnt as simple as Sales - Expenses = Profit. Adding it together for him doesnt actually help as you are not an Accountant and he cant simply trust that you know the taxation and depreciation rulings.
 
It's not that difficult Pushka.

Materials are not depreciated. No new tools were purchased. So the only items to be depriciated were the motor vehicle and office aquipment which is exactly the same as the privious year.

My accountant knows we are investors and that we were about to apply for our ninth property. For the sake of applying for a new loan, most financial institutions take the gross income. Not the taxable income including depreciation. So when we had our little chat for an hour and half. He new of the importance of the estimate. Depreciation didn't matter.

Gee, if we had to include all our depreciation deductions for a new loan, the banks would have a fit, because it would show that we almost earnt nothing.

As Fletcher Tax and ezza mentioned, it only takes a couple of hours. Not six weeks.
 
Last year we put our tax in really quick with our accountant but nonetheless it took him 6months before we got the return. Needless to say that we changed to a different account this year. Put our tax in with him straight away and got it returned within a week and cost us $50 less then last year, lol.
 
Met with my accountant at the start of June 08 to speak about 2008, 2009 personal and 2008 SMSF tax returns. Wanted to make sure I would have 2008 personal tax return in by end of FY to get the tax bonus and 2008 SMSF return so i wouldn't get fined (accountant organised extension)

Personal tax & SMSF tax was lodged by June 30. 2009 tax return was lodged end of July (when I received PAYG summary from employer).

I did make some pretty explicit conditions about making sure lodgements to be made by a certain time and they agreed up front. They also wanted a summary of all the information to streamline the process.
 
I think expectations need to be clear from the start.

Some accountants concentrate on the big fish leaving small fish behind for a "quiet period" hence the 6months+ wait.

Got to say it was very smart of the govt to have the 30 June cut off for the tax bonus. Aimed to "stimulate our economy" and improve compliance/tax lodgment with 1 step.
 
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