As part of its strategy to make tax digital, HMRC has been encouraging taxpayers to switch to paperless communication via their online personal tax account. As a result if you consent to paperless filing HMRC will post notices on your online account and send you an email notifying you about the new message. To read the…
Are you becoming a dinosaur?
I have supported Liverpool FC for a long time. I can remember the heady days of the 70s and 80s when they were European champions. For nearly a generation, between 1975 and 1990, Liverpool were dominant. They won 10 titles in England’s top division. They won the European Cup, which preceded the Champions League, four times…
The deficit myth
This week’s Sunday Supplement is a little different from usual. I’d like you to watch a short video of the 2020 Harcourt Lecture by Professor Stephanie Kelton. Her lecture starts after 10 mins (you can skip the introduction) and last for 40 mins. It is worth the investment of your time. Stephanie explains why austerity did more harm…
You can spend it, but can you buy it?
A phenomenon has occurred in recent years that has almost gone unnoticed by most of us. It was always said that time is the only thing we spend but cannot buy. But in recent years more and more businesses have been created that give us the opportunity to ‘buy’ time that we would otherwise spend…
What’s next for Making Tax Digital?
As you are probably already aware, there will be no further new taxes introduced, or changes to the threshold for VAT in 2020, so the next major change in MTD will not be until 2021 at the earliest. However, there are a couple of points in relation to the VAT process of which businesses should…
Forty years and counting…
I have been a Chartered Accountant for over 40 years; The 1970s, when I qualified, were pretty grim politically and economically with a great deal of industrial unrest. I didn’t care. I’d spent 3 years at University, got the job I wanted, spent another 3 years training as a chartered accountant, got married, bought my…
Have you received a ‘nudge’ letter?
A number of businesses and individuals have received letters from HMRC requesting detailed information about subjects ranging from rental accommodation and offshore income to the employment status of contractors. What’s going on, and how should you respond? HMRC’s Connect computer system collects data from public and private sources, which HMRC uses as the basis for…
Banks move to clamp down on contractors
Barclays and Lloyds have become the latest big businesses to inform contractors that their engagements would not extend beyond the introduction of new off-payroll working rules to the private sector next April. Contracts will instead be arranged on a PAYE or umbrella firm basis. The move is the latest in a string of similar statements…
Looking at the books, you can see a litany of accounting failures.
After my father died I found among his papers a booklet detailing the history of his mother’s family, the Goodliffes, over several generations during the 19th century, during which they built a thriving wholesale grocery business in the Midlands. In one passage it describes how Thomas Goodliffe, my great-grandfather, went on the first escorted tour…
He didn’t know it was impossible
Did you see Messi’s goal? No, stay with me! This football related analogy has an important message for your business. I’ve been a Liverpool FC fan for more years than I can remember. Last week they played Barcelona FC in the semi-final of the Champions League. They are demonstrably two of the best teams in…
