SME corporate and accounting costs

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1
I am in the process of setting up a GmbH and looking for an accountant to support with:

- year end account production;

- VAT returns, as needed once my turnover exceeds 100K;

- monthly payroll;

- corporate tax filings; and

- any other corporate requirements.

I've done a small amount of (ongoing) research and so far the cheapest to date has been 4 - 5k per annum.

This is higher than I would have expected. Does anyone have any experience of whether I am being unrealistic? Or, any recommendations?

Thanks in advance

2
That sounds about right.

The big advantage of using a registered accountant is that the tax authorities can see a professional did the accounts so it's probably not worth too much time checking if they are accurate, if the bother to check at all !

If you do them yourself and submit them as such, it is a red light to them to check and make sure everything is good (from their point of view, of course, not yours)

3
that's what I would expect as well, maybe the cheapest could be someone who just started out as independent and doesn't have any employees.

4
Seem very reasonable, it comes to about 3 hours a month for keeping everything up to date, plus the the addional work for the accounts prep and filings.