AMS Group appointed SNP auditor
Manchester-based AMS Accountants Group has stepped into the political firing line by accepting the appointment as auditor for the Scottish National Party (SNP).
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Under independence presumably a Scottish firm of accountants would have to be the auditors. Wonder why none of them are stepping up now?
Well, JC (the largest) stood down and whilst there are some of okay size there are not that many larger firms left that are solely Scottish (JC also has presence down south in Newcastle and London). Given publicity around the SNP I doubt the appointment really assists winning other clients in Scotland, hence the other firms may have, I suspect ,body swerved and the SNP has maybe needed to look south.
Update: Tax policy blogger Dan Niedle has looked into the background of AMS Group and established that it is related to tax advisory boutique Signature that specialises in “education and school fees planning”.
In his assessment, the tax avoidance scheme designed to lessen the liability for parents paying school fees is unlikely to succeed. The Guardian followed up the story over the weekend here:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/06/tax-firm-run-by-snps-au...
Our own tax editor, Rebecca Cave, has been in touch with Niedle to explore the issues in more detail. Stay tuned!
Interesting ... but I'd be careful when following Dan's innuendos.
All that the Guardian actually quotes him as saying is:
* it *struck* him as a “tax avoidance scheme”; and
* “I expect HMRC will challenge it, and for their challenge to succeed.”
... that's a lot of opinion without providing any substantive reasoning.
I am not a tax specialist but I know of countless people who have been doing, for over 10 years, what sounds remarkably similar to the AMS 'scheme' ... without any understanding that they are using a 'scheme' and indeed without any fallout from HMRC.
Ignoring the dimensions of morality (whether with regard to private education or of tax planning), there needs to be a good deal more than one person's claim of a whiff of impropriety before you (or anyone else) has a News story.
AMS Accountants Group Limited has not disclosed any persons with significant control at Companies House. The last filed disclosure of shareholders at Companies there were only two sharedolders in the names of David Clegg and Ebrahim Sidat who both have 5050 ordinary shares each. The two directors are David Luke Clegg and Ebrahim Sidat and the accounts for 31/12/2021 declare that the ultimate controlling parties are the directors due to their equal ownership of the entire issued share capital of the company. They are therefore in breach of the PSC regime and this does not reflect well on them as the auditors of the SNP.