Accountancy Blog

How to minimise disruption in your business.

It has been a challenging and eventful three years for UK businesses with a series of high-profile incidents highlighting how situations can change suddenly and often without warning.

From the continued pressure of uncertainty relating to Brexit, terrorism, fire, extreme weather and cyber-attacks, how would your business cope if it was affected by something similar?

Would your staff know what to do? Would the business be able to keep trading? And what about smaller events, like your biggest customer suddenly switching to a competitor or multiple staff experiencing sickness issues?

If you do not already know the answer to these questions, then it’s time to start building a contingency plan for your business. More…

An overview of accountancy issues in the third sector.

If you’re in charge of running a charity, you will know how it differs from operating a business and how its motives and goals vary.

Non-profit organisations are treated very differently under the law, and managing a charity’s accounts can offer some unique challenges as a result.

The stakes are high, too. The work charities undertake can literally be a matter of life and death, for the beneficiaries of charity work, whether it’s in the UK or abroad.

In recent years, charities have felt under pressure, a combination of reduced investment from central government combined with economic uncertainty – more people are looking for help from charities, while at the same time fewer people feel able to give. More…

Most buy-to-let landlords saw their tax bills increase in 2017/18, suggesting the effects of changes to mortgage interest relief were beginning to be felt one year after they were introduced.

In a survey by Paragon, 58% of landlords said their tax bill for 2017/18 was higher than a year before, with an average annual increase of £3,039.

The report said this was a result of changes to mortgage interest tax relief, which is being phased out over a four-year period and replaced with a basic-rate tax credit by April 2020. More…

Changes to probate fees – due to take effect last month – have been delayed as Parliament wrangles to resolve the Brexit stalemate.

Bereaved families currently pay a flat fee of up to £215 to obtain the grant of probate needed in England and Wales to administer estates worth more than £5,000.

That system was due to be replaced on 1 April 2019 by a new regime, which would set fees on a sliding scale based on the value of an estate.

The changes will eventually abolish probate fees for estates worth less than £50,000 in England and Wales, although estates worth more than this face paying increased fees of up to £6,000. More…

The UK’s largest accountancy firms should be split into audit and non-audit businesses, according to recommendations from a Government committee.

The Big Four accountancy giants conduct 97% of large companies’ audits, while also supplying those companies with other accountancy services.

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee published a report highlighting a potential conflict of interest between the audit and consultancy services offered.

It endorsed a previous proposal from the Competition and Markets Authority that an operational division between audit and non-audit services should be put in place. More…