Those are quite incredible prices, thanks for the info. I do individual, partnership and corporate returns for the US, UK, Canada and Switzerland but, as I said, only for extended family and acquaintances. I am not soliciting business, and anyway I'm not a tax accountant but a tax lawyer: I write on this stuff and practice to the extent needed to know the issues practitioners face.

I know that mass layoffs in the City of London and the end of employer-paid tax returns done by the Big 4 have left many brokers and traders who chose to stay in London adrift. I had a chat with a head hunter a few weeks ago; she said that she has a new client who undercuts the big boys and is hiring to expand their practice, but I forgot the name.

As a lawyer, albeit one who rarely sees the inside of a court unless I'm tagging along with my barrister daughter, I am aware of a great deal of malpractice in this area, more's the pity. Mostly the client never finds out.

Similarly with wills and trusts, and investments too. Mostly people never get caught out, but the potential traps between the US and the UK (the latter now that long-term residents don't get non-dom benefits in most cases) promise to give rise to real hardship. Who knows about the taxation -- in effect double taxation -- of trust accumulations and mutual fund/unit trust earnings? Who thinks to ask about all those reporting forms for the IRS and Treasury: 3520, 5471, TD F 90-22.1? The penalty for not filing a 5471 is $10,000.

What are "accidental Americans" who have never lived in the USA and who live on modest self-employment earnings or have small businesses to do? The IRS admits in its literature that the penalties for nonreporting can grossly exceed the value of assets. And one can never discharge them in a US bankruptcy. (Under the principle of the Lord Mansfield dictum the UK will not enforce such foreign taxes penalties in its courts. but recent models of tax treaties make certain exceptions to that ancient "rule".

I have graduate law degrees from three countries and sometimes the rules are indecipherable to me and to my university colleagues. It's my opinion that the IRS quite enjoys being in the position of that French bureaucrat who, with a tight smile, tells you, "Monsieur, vous êtes en situation irréguilère", knowing you are now at his mercy.

Fortunately most expat tax returns are in fact trivial, which is why £1,200 is a bizarre amount to charge. But estate planning is not: what is one to do about a QDOT when the result of placing the family residence in a foreign trust would potentially be -- stamp duty aside -- an annual charge on shadow director income based on rental value and onerous UK taxation of the foreign trust itself. But a UK court wouldn't enforce the QDOT law, and many widow(er)s are better off abandoning US assets, or else evading US tax and never visiting the US or Canada (under the current treaty Canada enforces some US tax laws).

The US distrusts, and some would say despises, "foreignness". Perhaps it's the War of 1812 fought over perpetual allegiance all over again. The UK, with hastily and carelessly drawn legislation has made things worse for expats.

Fortunately though, most expats will stay below the radar. In looking at the returns of others I find that most mistakes never get found out, and that is true whether the errors result in too much tax or too little.

Finally, read this: http://www.emailthis.clickability.co...ToID=402687364 (WSJ.com - IRS Gets Tougher on Offshore Tax Evaders) The link should be valid for seven days.