Accountants

Banking & Financial Tax & Social charges
1

Our first accountant made a major mistake which took 3 years to sort out.


I spent a lot of time trying to understand by he was so stubborn BUT even more


time trying to resolve the problem.


I have no quibble in relation to his fees but the situation he placed us in almost


drove me crazy. French co....by the way.



Second accountant was British and worked for a small French company.


All seemed ok until he moved on to a larger French Co in another area.


We moved with him as requested but I feel very disappointed with the way in


which the company operates.
Even though there is no language barrier there seems very little clarity in how


the final bill is composed. Also they require a signed document each year re payment


and 50% of the proposed and estimated total to be paid in January.....several months


ahead of any attention to our account.


Our situation is far from complex.


In fact it is very few elements of involvement....


We are off to see another accountant today who came to see us at out house


before Christmas and she feels that in view of everything the end of year tax


return should take only one hour to produce.









2

This may be a silly question, but if your tax return is that simple, i.e. 1 hour, why do you need an accountant?

3

Is it really simple?
My accountant asks me to bring every detail to her regarding earnings etc
regarding the tax year.
She asks relevant questions and I then pay a very small fee.
If I need to ask anything through out the year she takes the time
to help via e mail.

4

You know, I have long held the view that accounts is the most misnamed profession available.
It usually turns out they are accountable for nothing when things go wrong!

5

Well not in all cases.

My accountant stood by me…or us…should I say when we had a
dispute with the Vat dept…
We won the case before it went to court and the inspector resigned
shortly after.
I have been advised by an insider that VAT inspectors get commission.

But there is good and bad in every corner of the world.

6

We had to sign a paper every every year for our accountant absolving him
of any mistakes he might make.

Fortunately, as far as we are aware, he never made any…

7

We all try not to make mistakes.
In order to keep the figures up to date, invoices recorded,
vat and paye organised I hired a book keeper.
She worked 2 half days per week. (she was a qualified chartered accountant).
But was happy enough to add to her working hrs with book keeping.

What I have found is that my book keeper did not seem like my accountant
and visa versa…and any of the book keepers through out this journey…none of
them liked each other…or so it seemed.