Taxcalc vs. Taxfiler

gwenb

Hello,
I am considering using software for the preparation of tax returns and accounts for sole traders. I would like to hear people's experience with either/both. The AAT magazine is advertising Taxcalc and that's a good recommendation in itself.
Anyway, I would really appreciate your views on this.
Thank you.

MarieNoelle

I use TaxCalc and find it easy to use but may not be the cheapest out there. As @Mickdundee suggests, the fact that it is advertised in the AAT magazine has nothing to do with my choice.

I have no experience of Taxfiler so can not comment on it.

Here are the links to 2 earlier discussions on this matter:
https://forums.aat.org.uk/discussion/443016/vt-accounts-tax-software

https://forums.aat.org.uk/discussion/442150/software

Hope this helps

gwenb

Those are very good points Mick, thank you.

So, being a start-up, I am not hoping for more than 10 clients this tax year both self employed and companies. I am after a package that offers SARs, accounts, CTax and VAT returns.

I read that Taxfiler is a bit limited but price wise seems very reasonable. I should have said that I am open to explore other options as long as it's not too expensive. My budget is only £150/£200 a year at the most.

The reason I think that AAT advertising of Taxcalc is a good recommendation is because I thought they would not try to sell anything that would affect their reputation. I may be wrong you think?

Neillaw

I've started with Taxfiler as it's the best cashflow efficient package. That doesn't mean to say that i'll not jump ship in a couple of years but with the client base I have it just isn't economically viable. My mentor uses Iris which is expensive for what it is.

I wanted a system that would do both CT and accounts as vat returns can be done on VT or another book-keeping package or even Excel dependant on your knowledge.

burg

Taxfiler seems ok. I was considering it as an option for our practice as we were trying to go cloud based. For me the Accounts prep side was not up to what we needed. Many use VT for accounts production as it is cheap and functional but you will also need tax software.
As a note we use Capium.

Bertie

Both are good pieces of kit.

For purely sole traders, on a budget, how about Excel and HMRC software until you're further established?

TaxCalc comes into its own when drawing up Ltd accounts due to its 'almost' nailed on error checklists.

You can access a trial of both. Maybe if you've time over the weekend have a play. Load some dummy data, try importing data, mapping and such like.

And yes, as above, don't read too much into the advertisements found within the magazine.

reader

I know of a smallish firm of accountants (circa 1,500 clients), who specialize in contractors/consultants/freelancers, who just use VT and tax filer. I need to start working out how to use VT and tax filer and start growing my practice.

Bertie

1500 clients is smallish?

reader

They probably only turnover £2M which makes them a small business (they are definitely larger than micro)

Bertie

Ok yes, I see what you did there.

Smallish as in a company size sense, not in a accountancy practice size.