Accountants need to close the credibility gap

At last ! An official report backing up what I've been saying for years.

However, it misses out one vital point; clients also don't trust accountants because they often believe that they put the interest of HMRC before their own. Some certainly see themselves as high tax vigilantes - as frequently demonstrated by the comments on Any Answers. But in the majority of cases, too many accountants have a " jobsworth" approach to their work, resulting, unintentionally,in a high tax bill for clients. The more money clients pay in tax, the less there is to invest in their business. Ironically, over the longer term, this results in less more being paid to HMRC through stunted growth.

Accountants have got to become more accountable to their clients. Luckily, there are now quite a few - and growing - very, very good accountants in the profession who understand this. They're worth every penny of their fees. But this highly valuable, elite band is far out weighed by rank after serried rank of dull duffers, who plod along, wrapped in officialdom, doing more harm than good.

Have a look around your office. You know who they are.     

seem to see a response to 'any answers' from you suggesting how to reduce tax given a particular scenario....don't you know any?

You don't need to spend on a research to confirm something very obvious, given that majority out there are unqualified!!

May be the qualfied ones could come together under the 'chartered' banner to differentiate themselves from the rest, possibly using the CCAB umbrella!!

taxguru I fail to see the relevence of your point. Are you implying that all the qualified accountants are trustworthy, and all the unqualified ones are crooks?  The funny thing is I can remember seeing many newspaper reports of qualified accountants being prosecuted for offenses, but very few reports of unqualified ones being prosecuted.

Indeed assuming that the Acca questioned only Acca accountants it appears 25% believed that the general public perceived that they were not trustworthy....perhaps says more about their own members than the general accounting population....

No, I don't mean that at all. Indeed there are good unqualified accountants. But the fact is that if 'anybody' can be an 'accountant' how would you fill the credibility gap?

below doctors architects above bankers journalist and lawyers , spot on i would say

I think you will find anyone can become a chartered accountant, pass a few exams and hey presto - passing exams doesn't test for unethical/untrustworthy people, it just tests whether they understand the rules they 'should' practice by. (not saying it isn't worth doing....but doesn't in itself address the question of how trustworthy someone is)

Bankers - hardly the most trusted profession.

HMRC - Does anyone actually trust them to ever get anything right?

Clients - Let's be honest, most of them are fiddling their tax one way or another.

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That clients will trust an accountant whom by reputation, is straight talking, robust with HMRC, firm with clients and not a sycophant.

If Value Pricing was adopted more widely then I am sure the necessary change would occur. Until then the profession will continue to decline in relevance along with fees and margins.

Bob Harper

Crunchers | Alternative Accountants

the pricing structure is quite as closely linked to credibility as you would like to think.  I thought bankers were paid on a performance related pay basis - that worked well.....