The Price of Having Your Taxes Done Professionally

Hello! I am looking into having my next tax filing done professionally, as mine will be a little weird this year, and I generally suck at this kind of thing, never mind all of the new, complicated, scary stuff like FATCA. 

I sent off an inquiry to one tax pro in the US who specializes in expat affairs and was given a rough quote of 1000 Pounds.  Ouch! I'm not rich, so this stings...does this sound about average/right? Might it be possible to find someone trustworthy for less than that? Thanks!

This is a recent outline on how to choose an adviser:
https://americansabroad.org/files/1014/1782/6314/david-treitel-london-town-hall.pdf

Do bear in mind that it is usually easier to use a tax adviser in the UK as he or she will be in the same time zone as you and will be properly supervised for the (compulsory) purposes of UK anti-money laundering rules.

Generally the smaller one-person businesses run from home have lower fees than larger firms.  Try and figure out what you need when you are getting a quote.

I had some contact with a company a few weeks ago.....US citizen moving to the UK (retired) and it was likely going to cost more than 1,000 Pounds to do both returns. I think my returns will be about as easy as they can be.....but still a pain. When we move back (hopefully) this Spring I will likely have someone do my returns at least for the first year and just bite the bullet on the cost and hope I can figure it out after that.

Although there are definitely firms that charge that much (and more) to complete a tax return, there are lower cost options out there. Greenback for example has lower fees...and we keep our prices low by not maintaining physical offices. By not having the overhead of offices everywhere, we can pass those savings along to our clients.

If you just have a simple situation, we can file your US Federal return for as little as $357.

If you are at all interested, or have any further questions, please feel free to let me know.

It is often helpful to use a local adviser who is locally regulated that one can meet and chat with face to face.

If you have to do US taxes and a UK self assessment you need to coordinate your tax filing. They are so interdependent that you can't think of them separately and it's best if you find someone (or a single company) that will file both for you. Given that, a cost of 1000 pounds doesn't sound excessive. My question would be, is your US advisor qualified to file UK taxes and would they understand the implications of your UK residency.