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9am Lowdown: Deloitte sends mixed Brexit message

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18th Nov 2016
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Good morning and welcome to the 9am Lowdown. This Friday the headlines include Deloitte on Brexit, Making Tax Digital and Concentrix.

 

Deloitte sends mixed Brexit message

Deloitte will continue to invest in Britain and has no plans to withdraw according to its global chairman.

David Cruickshank, global chairman of the firm, said: “We still have a very big base in the UK and we're very proud of our UK heritage.

“(Brexit) just says the UK has to be very good at trading internationally, doing things internationally and that's where all our efforts are. So we continue to invest hugely in the UK,” Cruickshank said according to Reuters.

The commitment to the UK follows reports that the Big Four firm might move work if the post-Brexit stance on immigration is too tough.

Earlier this week Deloitte sparked government criticism after an internal memo written by its consultants was leaked that said Britain has no overall strategy for leaving the EU. Then on Thursday, Deloitte UK chief executive David Sproul told Sky News that the company would be prepared to move work outside Britain if restrictions were placed on immigration.

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Turn MTD to your advantage

Writing in the comment section of the AAT website, Mark Purdue of Thomson Reuters said accountants should tackle Making Tax Digital (MTD) issues now rather than wait.

Purdue added that the frequent accounting updates, which MTD necessitates, could well be a good thing for the profession.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to get everyone’s records in, in a timely fashion, rather than getting everything at the eleventh hour?” he asked. “Fortunately, we can take some key steps now to help make this happen, or at least start doing things differently.”

He added: “HMRC is running a public beta of MTD in 2017. By the end of 2018, it’s predicted that businesses will update HMRC quarterly for their income tax and National Insurance obligations through their online accounting software. The roll-out will start in 2019 for VAT, and then in 2020 for corporation tax. The plan is for MTD to be in full force by 2020 – but we need to start preparing for it now.”

Read the full piece on the AAT website.

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Tyrie writes to HMRC on Concentrix

Andrew Tyrie MP and chairman of the Treasury Committee has responded to letters from Jon Thompson, chief executive of HMRC about Concentrix.

Commenting on the correspondence, Tyrie said: “A serious problem remains in the tax credits system with fraud and error. As the full implementation of Universal Credit slips even further, HMRC should not neglect to address this on the grounds that it will be DWP’s problem tomorrow.

“They need to get to grips with the very different challenges of both fraud and error, and to tackle them in much more sensitive ways than achieved by Concentrix. HMRC also need to be confident that they know what went wrong. So a wide-ranging internal review needs to get underway.”

Thompson and Nick Lodge, director general of transformation at HMRC, gave oral evidence to the Treasury Committee on 27 October. They agreed to write to the committee on several action points raised during the hearing, which are in annex A to Thompson’s most recent letter to Mr Tyrie.

In his response, Tyrie:

  • Requests an update on HMRC’s progress in dealing with mandatory reconsideration requests
  • Urges Thompson to conduct an internal inquiry into what went wrong
  • Encourages HMRC not to neglect the serious problems of fraud and error in the tax credits system

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