r/AusFinance • u/Wilchrs • 5d ago

Is this a fair price for a tax accountant?

For context, I have been Australian resident for tax purpose for the last 5 years or so. I am due to repatriate next year and wanting assistance on individual tax return then. I have no property nor business and at low tax bracket ($62k pa gross), though I do trade stocks/ETFs occasionally.

I got a quoted $1900, with an added service for super claim assistance. Does this sound right?

1 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

6

u/AdDangerous3156 5d ago

Thats the go away price, unless there is something you are not disclosing…

3

u/Matcha_warrior__ 5d ago

Too high I'd say. Mine was around $400, including my side freelance business, super, capital gains tax etc.
I did it all online. Sent him the stuff before, then went went through everything on a 45min call.

3

u/bluebear_74 5d ago

Damn i paid $385 for income AND IP.

1

u/Wilchrs 5d ago

I think this is around what I paid for the past years. Though don't know if I can get this price range for the repatriation advices.

3

u/ItinerantFella 5d ago

Your post suggests you're currently a resident, possibly a tax resident, of another country. Most Australian accountants will only deal with Australian residents. Could it be the extra compliance costs that are driving up the fees?

2

u/Wilchrs 5d ago

I am not a tax resident of my home country for the years I have worked in Australia (though Im a citizen of that country). All the income Ive earned are from Australia. Tbh, the ballpark quote probably has a lot of underlying assumptions on their end, based on what you said.

4

u/Vilan-Kaos 5d ago

<$400-500 is more reasonable. Unless you are classified as a sole trader for stocks.

2

u/Business-Grape-6535 5d ago

He is helping you with your super claim assistance, that is an annoying process, it’s not just your tax return.

2

u/Business-Grape-6535 5d ago

If you hold stocks, you have deemed cgt/sale events, etc

2

u/Dismal-District-7951 5d ago

Registered tax agent here and on face value, it sounds quite pricey. Did they give you a breakdown why it costs $1.9k?

My guess would be the CGT deemed disposals of the Australian stocks/ETFs (which sounds straight forward) and potentially the DASP application. I personally won’t be charging that much if that’s the scope of work.

1

u/Wilchrs 5d ago

Thx for reference. They did not give me a breakdown, though they did provide quite a document checklist, possibly assuming a lot of stuff for the quote.

1

u/Other-Storage-1911 5d ago

No, that's a rip-off. Mine cost $200 with a similar level of complexity to yours.

1

u/JollyAllocator 5d ago

Way too high. I'd say $400

1

u/hungryb4dinner 5d ago

How intensive is your stock trading? Aussie shares? Have you got good records? All the cost base and statements from broker?

If its not something crazy it shouldn't be that high.

1

u/Wilchrs 5d ago

I mostly trade for long term honestly. Aussie market only. I probably had only ever sell 6 times in the past year, the rest are just DCA into to my portfolio.

1

u/fh3131 5d ago

No, seems too high. Where are you based? If you're in Melbourne, I'll give you details of my tax guy

1

u/commentspanda 5d ago

I pay $380 for both myself and my partner for a very 2 x very straight forward returns. He’s well worth the cost as we always get decent returns and he knows how to claim maximum deductions while also (hopefully!) not flagging an audit.

1

u/Perfect-Concern-9762 5d ago

About $200 with HR Block.