The checks you can do yourself in fifteen minutes
Use public registers rather than trusting a website. Confirm the individual holds CTA or ATT status on the official CIOT or ATT member directory, confirm AML supervision on HMRC's Supervised Business Register, and check the firm at Companies House for incorporation, directors and filing history. Then ask directly who their AML supervisor is and whether they hold professional indemnity insurance. Members of the seven bodies behind Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation (PCRT) are bound by a mandatory ethical code on competence, integrity and the limits of acceptable planning, which is a trust signal an unaffiliated adviser cannot offer. From May 2026 advisers who deal with HMRC on clients' behalf must also register with HMRC, though that is registration rather than a licence of competence, so these checks still rest with you.
Why a generalist is the wrong fit for cross-border work
A capable high-street accountant handles a straightforward UK return well, but expat and non-resident cases turn on the Statutory Residence Test, double tax treaties, split-year treatment and the FIG regime that arrived when the remittance basis was abolished on 6 April 2025. These rules interact, and applying UK-only assumptions to them can mean tax paid in the wrong country, missed reliefs and penalties across two tax authorities at once. The practical test is to ask how many cases like yours the adviser handles in a typical year: someone who works on residence and treaty questions week in, week out will reason from the current rules, not the regime that existed before 2025.
How fees should work
The strongest model for expat work is a fixed fee agreed upfront in a written engagement letter that states exactly what is and is not included and what would trigger an extra charge. Hourly billing is acceptable if you still get a written estimate, but an open-ended arrangement with no cap should make you pause, and the cheapest generalist quote can be the most expensive outcome once errors are counted. As a guide to what published fixed fees look like, at Horizon UK Tax Solutions personal returns start from £450, non-resident and expat returns are £750 fixed and complex returns from £950, always agreed upfront. Our full guide to choosing an adviser sets out the complete checklist, and a free clarity call at /book lets you put these questions to a Chartered Tax Adviser directly.