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Overcharged by CPA?

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  1. #11

    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    6

    Just to let you guys know, I have received offers from other CPA's for 15 ~ 50% of the price my current CPA charges me...

    Still trying to find a good match. Does anyone know where to look for an affordable CPA / book keeper?


  2. #12

    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    θ–„ζ‰Άζž—
    Posts
    47,964

    You can do weekly withdrawals if you want. Adjust your risk and do biweekly or monthly if you want.

    No, every transaction does not need to be on the accounts presented to the auditor. You should be ready to present an explanation of the batches reported to the auditor. Ours is happy if we explain a depsot of XXX Dollars with a statement from the processor that equals the same amount.


  3. #13

    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    6

    I received a final price for the accounting and audit over few years. It's approximately 14% of total profit before taxes and 16% of net profit after taxes. Total profit after tax close to 2 million HKD.

    How much % does accounting and audit take out of your yearly profit?

    I've been a bit naive believing it would be easy to manage a HK company. I wasn't prepared for all the extra fees this registered agent throws at me every year, or the HK government or bank requiring one document after another, fee after another etc.
    I was told it would be "easy" to file for tax exemption.... what a joke.


  4. #14

    Join Date
    Dec 2019
    Posts
    25

    My accounting firm charges by the hour but provides a fee quotation first and I find them quite reasonable. From the explanation the fees are not based on % of turnover but based on the volume of documents they need to inspect.


    I have been incurring fees from banks and what not as well but those are necessary fees nowadays when doing business, just needs to get used to it.


    Offshore tax exemption is definitely "not easy" and if an accountant told you it is easy then you have been tricked.


  5. #15

    For e-commerce companies, the best way to book the accounts is to group the transactions through a few entries on monthly basis (with supporting breakdowns such as excel records of sales, purchase, expense, inventories, paypal statements) and in that case the data input process would be largely less time consuming and as a result, the accounting fee should be reduced largely. You will need to suggest this working arrangement with your current accountant or consult other accountant whoever is willing to do so (please note there are some accounting firms who won't accept such arrangement).

    Most of the accounting firms that I know are prepared the fee proposal based on the estimated data input workload. So the key is to reduce the workload/time to justify a lower fee.

    Tax exemption is definitely not a easy thing, but it's definitely not something not possible. With proper planning and preparation on documents from the very beginning of the business operation, the successful rate is not low at all. It's unfortunate that you clearly have been misled by the agent when you incorporated the company and haven't received a proper tax advice for this before you start the operation.

    Luckily from tax year 2018/19, the profits tax rate has been reduced to 8.25% for the first HK$2 million profits. So you should have seen your total tax liabilities for 2018/19 are lower than before.