Is this rediculious for an accountant fee??? please help

[foreva*your*mummy]

Hi all
Ok a bit of background first.
My partner and I started a share farming job about 8 months ago, It is our first buisness so we are new to it all. Our friends put us onto a good accountant that they use and said he was great!! he is very helpfull.
Things have been very tight at the moment the farm was run really poorly and we are slowly getting it up to scratch, so money has been very tight( not sending much milk).
We need to buy another ka but with the end of the financial year comming up we didnt want to put all our money into a ka and have nothing left over for the up comming Tax we would have to pay.....................................
So I rang the accountant and asked him over the phone if there was any way he could do a rough guess at what he thought we would have to pay for tax? he said that would be fine I sent him some figures and then he emaild me with a spreadsheet detailing where and what we would have to pay ( roughly). It was exactly what I wanted and put my mind at rest.......................................... fast forward to today I get in the mail a Bill for $270.00!!!!!!! for his time ( im thinking it was about 10 min) and my phone call time. and it reads general accounting services
preperation of and discussions re: tax planning calculations and likely primary tax outcome.

The problem I have is A) we are financially tight and obviously i am nieve and B) he is then going to charge us again in 3 weeks when we go down and do our actuall tax for the year!!.
Does this seem right, I just dont know, we have never had to deal with anything like this before.
any advice would be great sorry this turned out so long
TIA xo

[misty]

Unfortunately, yes this does seem right. It is very important to ask BEFORE doing anything with a financial advisor or accountant how much things are going to cost you.

DH and I learnt this lession the hard way too.

[foreva*your*mummy]

Oh thanks, the thing is we are just not used to it and dindnt know what to expect. It is lesson learned I think it was just a blow at this time.
thanks for the feedback, makes me feel a bit better

[Indadhanu]

Yeah, thats about right. Could you ask him to take it out of any possible refund? Good news is (not right now, but for next year) you can offset it (I think offset, maybe deduct?).

[Laranna]

Yep that sounds about right. You will most likely be able to claim the accountants fees in next years tax return though.

[foreva*your*mummy]

thanks again ladies, was talking to my mum about it and she was asking about that claiming it back. Its all so new to us but he is a big help. I guess I would be too if I got paid that an hour haha

[Oorki Galoorki]

actually you can claim that for the 08/09 financial yr as it was done in that time! so you will get the money back sooner then having to wait for next yr

[Indadhanu]

Oh der! True! You should be able to get that back with this refind! Smart cookie doudou!

[foreva*your*mummy]

Oh really, thanks guys that will make my DF feel happier about it when i tell him. yey for you all. thanks so much!!

[Astrid]

You may not be able to claim it straight away. I assume you are doing cash accounting, in which case you can only claim in the finanical year that it has been paid, not when it was incured. You can only claim in the year it is incurred if you are doing accrual accounting.