Over the past few month’s our Free Online Tax Advice Form has been inundated with self employed tax and accountancy questions.

Starting today, and running over the next few weeks, I will run through the most popular questions and answers right here on the blog.

Q. How easy is it to change my accountant?

This should not be a difficult task.

Once you have signed up with a new accountant, you should, out of courtesy, contact your old accountant and warn them that you will be employing another accountant and they should expect a letter from us in the next few days.

At TWD we will also write out of professional courtesy to ask if they object to us acting and whether there are any reasons why we should not act on your behalf. We will also ask for several pieces of information, such as a copy of your last completed accounts and tax return, tax calculations and any other information we may need to prepare your accounts.

Most accountants are usually quite prompt in doing this, but we do have the odd one or two that drag their heels as they are not happy that you are changing. We will send them reminders until they reply. In some circumstances, if the accountant is a member of a professional association, a complaint can be lodged to that association and the accountant will be taken to task.

Previous accountants can withhold information from new accountants if you have outstanding fees, so please make sure that you are up to date with any bills they have issued to you.

We will ask you to sign a form which authorises us to act on your behalf and send that to HMRC and that will cancel out the authority from the previous accountant.

Look out for the next Q&A: I haven’t filed my tax return on time, can you help?

You may also find the following pages useful: Tax FAQ’s , Tax Tips, Tax Calculators