A fee you can work out yourself
If you can take the engagement letter and your own figures and arrive at the fee, you can compare the proposal with any other and you know what a good year will cost.
Why it matters
The fee is the first thing a proposal should make clear, and the thing that is hardest to compare when it is not. A fee you can work out yourself has a stated model, a named base, a cap or a minimum written down, and a payment schedule. With those, you can put every proposal on the same claim and see what changes. Without them, you are comparing headline percentages that may not mean the same thing.
How to check for it
- Take the letter and the claim you expect, and write down the fee. If you cannot, note what is missing.
- Do it again for a claim half the size and double the size. The letter should answer both.
- Check that the base is named: the credit claimed, the credit received, or an amount you can point to.
- Check whether a cap, a minimum or any extras are stated, with figures.
- Ask for a worked example and compare it with yours. They should match.
What it does not tell you
A green flag is a practice, not a verdict. An adviser with every green flag on this list can still prepare a weak claim, and an adviser with none of them can prepare a strong one. It is one thing to look for, alongside the questions to ask and the references you can speak to.
Read next
- The question: how are your fees calculated?
- The red flag: unclear fee base
- Fee comparison calculator and fee types
KnowYourFees.org is published by Swanson Reed, an R&D tax advisory firm that competes with other advisers. This site does not recommend any adviser, including Swanson Reed.
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