Time to talk about unqualified accountants

They're a perennial thorn in the side for many practitioners, so we organised a webinar about them.

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As we have seen on Any Answers in recent weeks, few topics generate as much anger as the activities of unqualified accountants.

Just over a week ago, AccountingWEB member ireallyshouldknowthisbut voiced concerns about people who appear to be offering services to the general public without a firm underpinning of basic knowledge of accounts and tax.

“Its highly dangerous for the client who remains often blissfully unaware until something blows up. Not quite as bad as your gas boiler exploding due to years of bodging, but financially the results can be not so dissimilar,” the member wrote.

The term “accountant” still has no official legal status in the UK, though people who have qualified through professional bodies are covered by standards of learning and professional conduct.

That results in numerous exchanges on this site about what it means to call yourself an accountant and the degree to which the professional qualification is a meaningful identifier.

Some members who are “qualified by experience” have little time for the institutes, or have even walked away from them as the relevance of their qualifications declined and the cost of their fees went up. HMRC acknowledges the existence of this group of practitioners and has even taken on responsibility for regulating them for anti-money laundering purposes. As the Agent Services regime develops around Making Tax Digital, the tax department is going to play an even more active role in regulating the profession.

What can be done to protect consumers from cowboy accountants and to ensure a fair, but quality-monitored playing field for those offering accountancy services?

Long-time AccountingWEB contributor Richard Sergeant will be trying to resolve this question in his “The Problem With…” webinar at on 1pm on Tuesday.

With so many different points of view and the heat surrounding the subject, it can be hard to get a clear view. Once you delve into the details, the debate is nowhere near as clearcut as it sometimes appears, Richard said. But he’s interested in hearing the points AccountingWEB members on this forum would like to feed into the discussion.

So what would you like Richard and his fellow panellists Jeremy Clark (ICAS assistant director of practice), Eriona Bajrakurtaj (Majors Accounts) and Steve Knowles (Knowles Warwick) to address?

“There’s a lot to cover,” Richard told me earlier today. “We’re going to approach the discussion in an organised, dispassionate way to try and bring some clarity to an issue on which everybody seems to have strong opinions.”

Replies (57)

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Replying to SteveHa:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
07th Jul 2020 14:11

Yee-haw pardner.

Think I could well be joining you and mosey on to some other watering hole, recent weeks on here have really conveyed the impression that Sift has,

" abandoned me,
love don't live here anymore,
Just a vacancy
Love don't live here anymore."

Thanks (1)
Replying to SteveHa:
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By Paul Crowley
07th Jul 2020 23:36

Does anybody think that the contibutors read any post on this thread?

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By Tax Dragon
07th Jul 2020 14:59

Dammit, missed the webinar.

It might take some of the heat out of the discussion to have it about some other profession, such as teaching. Then you can discuss relevant issues without people feeling you are attacking them or their livelihoods. (And, frankly, if a teacher - qualified or not - displayed the level of ignorance[*] of their chosen subject as is displayed in this forum regarding tax and accounts, I am not sure they would be a teacher for very long... does that indicate why there may be a need for regulation in the accountancy sector?)

[*] By which I mean, inability to find the answer to the most basic of questions, from reliable resources available to them. What that also indicates to me is that they are not even asking other basic questions and are therefore storing up potential issues for their clients that will arise when someone else (DD, HMRC, a new accountant, a divorce lawyer, etc) asks those questions. [Not sure about the divorce lawyer, tbh... fortunately never happened to me.]

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Replying to Tax Dragon:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
07th Jul 2020 15:09

I thought divorce lawyers were too busy measuring their clients re the likely fees to be earned to ask questions about what happened in the past, unless , of course, it can be pinned on the other one of the couple and used as leverage.

Not that I have ever had need of their services ,but nobody I have met who has gone through the divorce process has spoken highly of that process.

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Replying to DJKL:
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By Tax Dragon
07th Jul 2020 15:17

I don't know. Not been there, not done that, not got the T-shirt.

It's time I took Justin's advice and stopped talking about the many things I don't know about. (This and my previous comment exposing my hypocrisy... I wonder how long John wants to stand by me for?!)

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Replying to Tax Dragon:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
08th Jul 2020 00:49

"When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid
Oh, I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me"

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Lone Wolf
By Lone_Wolf
07th Jul 2020 17:20

I'm not particularly well versed as to the different responsibilities roles in the online media world have. Is it the Editor in Chief's job to cause widespread anger amongst the sites regular users and potentially drive them away?

If so then John seems to be doing a stand up job in recent weeks. Well done that man.

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