Continuity from previous accountant

JodieR

Client runs her business from an extension to her home and the previous accountant has (as expected) claimed quite a large amount in respect of 'use of home as office' in last year's accounts, but provided no indication as to how it was calculated when she sent me her clearance letter & documents.
Do you think I should ask her what basis she calculated the amount on so that I can be consistant in future, or should I just start from scratch and work out an appropriate portion as I would for a new business?

reader

There's no harm in asking for the calculation- worst case scenerio is that the previous accountant says no.

Personally, regardless of whether or not you get a response from the previous accountant I would still calculate your own business use of home charge just in case the previous accountant's charge is wrong.

You might want to wait a bit before you go back to the previous accountant just in case you realise you need other information- you don't want to have to keep going back to the previous accountant.

Monsoon

reader wrote: »

There's no harm in asking for the calculation- worst case scenerio is that the previous accountant says no.

Personally, regardless of whether or not you get a response from the previous accountant I would still calculate your own business use of home charge just in case the previous accountant's charge is wrong.

You might want to wait a bit before you go back to the previous accountant just in case you realise you need other information- you don't want to have to keep going back to the previous accountant.

I agree 100% with this.

JodieR

Thanks