Getting the best out of your accountant.
Who do you call for tax advice? Do you ask friends, colleagues, IRD or do you call your accountant? If you ask friends, colleagues or IRD then you may not be getting the best advice.
If you are too scared to ring your accountant because they will charge you then you need to ask them these questions:
- do they answer simple queries without charging you
- ask if they are going to let you know before-hand what they will be charging you.
or do they have a fixed price contract that includes free phonecalls.
I am surprised by the number of people I talk to that use IRD as a resource for tax advice. IRD staff are customer service staff who read answers off a FAQ screen. They have no tax knowledge and will only give the IRD view which usually is conservative and lends itself towards the revenue rather than the taxpayer.
Your accountant should be your first port of call for tax advice and if you don’t feel that you are getting good advice at a reasonable price then you should change accountants.
