farming/accounting income tax returns

We have always employed an Auckland based accountant to undertake our NZ interests for the farming tax returns however belt tightening is essential and I forewarned our Accountants of this.

As such I took over the GST returns which has been fine and compariable to doing the Aussie GST returns that I am used to doing.

However our annual income tax return is due for the partnership and i sought our accountants costs for this year, apparently by asking via email 2 questions re special tax codes we already owe them $330 (which would have been our normal GST return fee had they completed the return) and the annual return starts at $800 odd.

Keeping in mind I have never yet been charged $800 for a partnership return, but many hundreds more.... and then there is my personal return to be completed after the partnership return is processed at least another $400 odd.

so I contacted IRD today to ask for our filing number and I am going to give it a go seeing I did the 2 x 6 monthly GST returns without issue using MYOB cashbook.

I am worried though about the financial statements. I presume when I start entering the info on IRD site it will prompt me, but is there any tip I should be aware of beforehand so I can complete the process properly?

I have never done a depreciation schedule before, happy to give it a whirl this time around being forearmed with the previous year one.... but any other heads up I should know about?

Cant give you any help to your questions, but can offer my experience with our accountant.

As we are using the programme recommended by our accountant, our fees are very, very reasonable. He does the partnership plus 2 individual returns. I have always done the 2 monthly GST returns. I guess because we use the same programme (Cash Manager) our fees are kept to a minimum.
I do email him with questions at various times during the year and never get charged for these at the time. The fees for that is included with our annual accounts, so we only have one fee a year to pay. And it is usually covered by my tax return.
Works very well for us.

Thanks Jan could I ask (pm me if you wish) what the fees are that you are being charged?
Our return has never covered their costs, and as I have always summarised the expenditure it should not have been a big deal (we had a lot less transactions in those days too compared to now) and I also offered to get a programme that we could both work from via file transfer, but it didn't seem to make a difference to their costings..

One thing to be aware of is that if you are doing your annual tax return yourself, it is due in quite a bit sooner than if you have a tax agent.

We are absolutely hopeless with any accounts stuff so happy to pay for it to be done properly, we both work full time, have a family and have little time for this. Our place is in a partnership and the accountant does 6 monthly GST returns for us, our partnerships end of year accounts as well as both our individual returns.

They charge us around $1200 a year total which I think is money well spent and it means I know we are getting the best out of the situation for us. This fee gets charged in one bulk charge after our annual accounts are done and we do absolutely nothing in the year other than after a phone call to remind us every 6 months we give them a envelope that we have thrown reciepts in, one we put copies of invoices in and then yearly write up a annual animal stock take and get the bank etc to supply docs.

I figure that even if I could do the work myself for the minimal charge it really wouldn't be worth the hassle. Plus the bonus using the accountant firm means they keep up to date with NZ tax laws therefore insure you claim everything you are entitled too, I figure that benifit in itself would probably cover the cost.