I regret signing up with Bartax
I regret signing up with Bartax. As a new barrister I was told they were offering discounts to new pupils and that they were specialist accountants for barristers.
+ They do respond to emails fairly quickly.
+ The system they use allows easy uploading of expense receipts.
+ Other accountants do not calculate VAT, but only do Tax. Bartax do both.
- Setting Bartax up as my accountant was a nightmare because they sent outdated steps on how to register them. When I told them they weren't options, they just kept sending me them. I don't think they really understood/appreciated/cared that the HMRC website had changed and it consumed a lot of my time trying to sort it out.
- I have had difficulty calling them and/or getting answers from them for more simple matters, when I have called them. If somebody called me with an urgent matter, I would do my best to pass them to a colleague/find out what I could ASAP, but this doesn't seem to be the case with them.
- Various accountants work on your case (or at least mine) and it's hard to keep tabs on who is doing what.
- Prior to having multiple accountants work on my case, I was allocated an accountant who only worked 2 days per week and it was a nightmare trying to get answers, especially when I was having ongoing issues.
- There's radio silence for months and a month before deadlines 'WHAM BAM, send us this document' - no calls, just emails, and very last minute.
- I've had emails asking for 'routine expenses' like petrol when I've never been asked before. There's no consistency between accountants - some ask for things, others don't.
- Expenses are 'declined' for random reasons that other barristers don't have issues with.
- Nobody appreciates that you aren't a qualified accountant so you mightn't know what you can/can't claim back, so there's a lot you have to research yourself just to understand what you are entitled to submit. (As I said, things that are rejected are just rejected with no explanation, and you receive no notification of this, so unless you are an expert yourself and/or constantly check your expenses online and manually go through them all, you won't know what gets rejected)
- They have messed up on a simple tax matter before (where a friend of mine advised she had earned £X in another, separate jurisdiction i.e. not to be considered by Bartax) - this resulted in her being given a tax bill for double. Fortunately it didn't get submitted, but it was sent to her on a Friday, a minute before closing, so you can imagine they weren't too impressed.
TIPS:
1) There needs to be consistency - allocate a single contactable accountant to clients. (And tell your client who this is, so when there's an issue they can call a specific person)
2) Have some kind of consistency between accountants so they are on the same page and stay aware of the rules.
3) Provide some kind of explanation to clients about what you can and cannot claim as an expense, and if you reject one, explain it.