Blog Posts: August 2011

Although a daily report on the position of the FT100 index of UK shares is totally irrelevant to the long term investor, the media insist on relaying it in almost every news report at the moment. Steve Forbes, publisher of US Forbes Magazine, makes an interesting point; “You make more money selling advice than following it. It’s one of the things we count on in the magazine business – along with the short memory of our readers.” There is no doubt that big movements in....

Since the Finance Act receiving Royal Ascent on 19th July 2011 there’s been something of a rush in some quarters to check the effects on tax planning advice and tax planning schemes. Luckily the two leading UK providers of tax planning services that we work with were well ahead of the game and we’re able to talk with confidence to clients about our current tax planning options. It did set me thinking however about how individuals and business owners can be sure they are getting the....

That’s the beauty of outsourcing, the contracting out of a business activity, usually carried out in-house, to a specialist provider. Of course for many SMEs and family owned businesses it’s not just the tasks that they don’t like that can be outsourced, it’s non-core activities, those that add limited value or require specialist expertise. I recently wrote a blog (It’s time for accountants to offer more) about how the accounting profession needs to step up to the....

As more compliance is forced on business owners and the systems we’re required to follow seem to get more, not less complicated I believe it’s time accountants did more for their clients. Most business owners do not want to be an involuntary tax collector for the Inland Revenue. But when it comes to quarterly accounting for VAT or operation of the PAYE system that is just what those of us in business are to HMRC. VAT and PAYE are such important sources of tax it is unfortunately un....