Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.
accountingweb
9am Lowdown

9am Lowdown: Planning Brexit could cost £65m a year

by
29th Sep 2016
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

Good morning and welcome to this morning's 9am Lowdown. In today's news, a think tank has revealed the yearly cost of planning Brexit, and a self employed trade body has raised concerns about Making Tax Digital. 

* * *

Planning Brexit could cost £65m a year

The cost of negotiating Britain’s exit from the European Union could cost the government £65m a year, due to the need to hire 500 additional civil servants, according to a report by the Institute for Government.

According to the Guardian, the Planning for Brexit report criticises the triple departmental structure, saying it “risks creating fragmentation and incoherence, and a lack of clarity about the roles and responsibilities of the new departments has caused distractions and delayed work on Brexit.”

The report also urges the government to ministers “to move swiftly to spell out [the government’s] plan for reaching a negotiating position – even if it doesn’t want to give away its hand” and encourages Theresa May to “clarify the process and timescales through which she intends her government to agree the UK's initial negotiating position.”

* * *

MTD: Trade body warns against voluntary payments

A self-employed trade body has raised concern over HMRC’s Making Tax Digital’s pay as you go payment option, according to the Financial Times.

Andy Chamberlain, deputy director of policy at self-employed workers’ trade body IPSE, warned that the voluntary payments could ruin self-employed worker’s cash flow if they make advance payments at the wrong time.

“If self-employed people were persuaded this makes life easier, they may bet further into the tax year than they should, find they don’t have the income they need [later on], and then have to go through an administrative process to ask HMRC for a refund.”

He added: “There is generally no reason to pay tax in advance.”

* * *

Accountant stereotypes still alive

Accountants and bookkeepers are still perceived as “bean counters” and “number crunchers”, according to a new survey conducted by Xero.

Xero surveyed 3,500 members of the public in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand. While the respondents did not see accountants and bookkeepers as the creative types, two in three believed the job of accountants and bookkeepers are incredibly important for a functioning economy.

Interestingly, the survey revealed some good news for accountants looking for love. The respondents ranked accountants high on the dateability scale, due to how trustworthy they perceive the profession to be.

Responding to the results, Xero said: “While survey results regarding the importance of the profession only reaffirm our beliefs, we would love to see the public readjust their ‘strictly numbers’ notions of accountants and bookkeepers and see them for the creative advisors they are.”

* * *

Replies (3)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

Adrian Pearson
By Adrian Pearson
29th Sep 2016 11:47

Do all of the new civil servants needed for Brexit need to be on £130,000 pa? Really?

Thanks (0)
avatar
By rememberscarborough
30th Sep 2016 08:58

I think there's been a misprint. Given all the wild statistics thrown around in the Brexit "debate" surely it should be £65bn...

Thanks (0)
avatar
By lesrobinson
03rd Oct 2016 11:19

Seems like a 10,000% ROI to me - a few million's in cost to get many billions in savings each year… well worth it.

Thanks (0)