Can any one help. I live in the Brisbane area and I am prepared to travel if I can find an accountant that understands property investing. I just got the bill for 2005 tax year and I almost had a kitten. While I dont mind paying for a service I think $4300 or $4290 to be very percise is just a little ver the top.
I have requested an itemised bill to be sent. The bill breakdown thus far stated:
Completion and lodgement for income tax return and supporting schedules for year ended June 05 including:
5 Rental Prperty Schedules
A depreciation Schedules
A Capital Gains Tax Schedule
Foreign Income Reconciliation and
A Prior Year Losses ScheduleWhen I looked back at the tax return I can only find 2 of the above documents the 5 rental property schedules and a capital cains tax schedules.
Does the other document go to the tax office with my lodgement?
The accountant states in his letter that the fees were higher than expected and a contributing factor was the lack of consistency in my property manger forwarding my rental statements to them. The letter also said that the fee was belw their normal charges on this occasion. (Hate to think what the bill woulkd have been if they had not been so kind as to give me a discount).
I would really appreciate any help or advise.
Sophie.[grrr]
Okay, accountants charge by time
they do not usually overcharge as they want to keep clients happy
happy clients come back refer other good clientsComplete info with queries answered quickly is efficient
Incomplete data that requires chasing phone call and staff revising the job everytime they pick up adds time that may not be productive.
Everytime a job is picked up to review and put back down can take 1/4 hour, even if the review finds that the job cannot start again because info is still missing.How much do you pay your plumber for a 5 minute job ???
How compete was the data ??
Sounds high but if your data was incomplete then it could happen
I would suggest finding out what he requires to minimise costs next year and then seeing if that does not reduce bill.
Go to another accountant and you will be back at square one.
Yes I am an accountant, specialise in business clients and try to advoid individual property owners as costs and expectations don’t match.
Hello Sophie
Congratulations on having so much work for your accountant. [smiling]
If you want to make sure that this doesn’t happen again, then why don’t you get the property manager to send you the statements instead of to the accountant. I think you would save yourself a lot of money if you prepared the easy stuff for him.
For each property all you need to do is provide him with total income and totals for each catagory (agents fees etc., repairs,rates,water, insurances etc. etc.) You get the idea. It’s all on the statements.
That way you get to chase the missing statements and you also save yourself billable hours for something that you can easily do yourself with a good calculator. He will fill in all the difficult stuff for you such as depreciation and his fee.
It’s not as big a job as it seems. I know as I do it. [smiling]
B.T.W Are you having any luck getting your tenants out early from the property you want to live in ?
Cheers
ElkaHi
Thanks for the info. As for the tenants I tinks I am almost there. She said that she woulkd leave, I suppose that a start, but having said that that was almost 3 mths ago. I have a meeting with her tomorrow, it also appears that she is making a habit of paying the rent late so 2 form 11? have been sent already. I have offered to release her bond when she find another place and a cash amount to help with moving and additional rent.
fingers crossed
Sophie
Hi
In the letter from the accountant he claims that there have been about 25 statements from the property manager that they have not recieved. The funny things is the property manager sends the statements to the accounant and they copy it and sent me the originals. Of the 25 lost statements the accounant has sent me 20 of the lost statements saying that they have copies on their files.
Sophie
If your property manager is sending monthly statements to the accountant and then the accountant is copying them and sending them to you, I can imagine how the hours are mounting up.
Like Elka, I get nothing sent to my accountant. At the end of the year, I e-mail him a Word document that has every incoming and every outgoing I can think of.
For each property, I just tell him the total rent (incoming) and then the outgoings: management fees, rates, depreciation, repairs etc. he loves it.
On the Word document, I also have a list of questions. I then make an appointment and go through the questions one by one with him. I find I get a much better response this way rather than bombarding him with questions at a meeting.
ScottTax Depreciation Schedules
Australia wide service
1300 660033
[email protected]
http://www.depreciator.com.auI think that is way too expensive. approx $1000 would seem reasonable.
I would do what Scott does, just maintain a spreadsheet and send your accountant one email summarising all your expenses.
Accountants are like solicitors, they would be charging you a fee for opening letters, for phone calls to chase up statements, a fee per page for photocopying etc.
Terryw
Discover Home Loans
Parramatta
[email protected]
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Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
Oooops I forgot to list the most important expense and this is not on the statements.
Interest on mortgage… per property.
That’s one total on the bottom of your bank loan statement in July.
I’m totally jelous of people who know how to use a spread sheet and don’t need a good calculator. I have been meaning to try to learn but……. [glum]
If anyone has created a template for keeping track of income and expenses for an IP which they would be willing to share please let me know and I will send you my email address.
It must be easier to fill in then create so I might actually get myself into the 21st centuary if I had a starting point.
Thanks [smiling]
Elka
Hi all,
I use a rental property program called RENTAL WORKBOOK and is available from http://www.excelaustralia.com.au for an initial cost of $150.(tax deductable) One of it’s many valuable features is the end of year tax summary sheet for each individual property. My accuontant loves it and only charged me $375.00 to do all my properties.Thank you Bluegum. I will definitely look into it.
Cheers [smiling]
ElkaHi all,
I would suggest that all investors need to keep track of income and expenses for their own properties, irrespective of the size of their portfolios. Doing this will keep your accountancy bills to a minimum and will allow your accountant to work with you in such a manner that they can tweak your claims (within legal frameworks) rather than just be a book keeper.
I keep all of my details on a self designed spreadsheet that is purely and simply a recording tool. It doesn’t make fancy calculations other than totalling respective columns and provided I maintain my records (which I do) then tax time is relatively painless and quick. Mind you I given the nature of our setup there is some time making sure all bits and pieces are intact prior to traipsing off to the accountant.
If anyone wants a copy of the spreadsheet – do not hesitate to ask. Just send me an email with spreadsheet in the subject and I’ll send one back by return email. It’s not fancy – just cheap.
Derek
[email protected]
http://www.pis.theinvestorsclub.com.au
0409 882 958
Skype – derekjones2113
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