In 30 years of providing Accountancy services, no client has ever asked me if I am qualified! I gave up my membership of an accountancy organisation years ago as it didn't offer anything for the huge membership fee. I expect that large corporates might require evidence of qualifications, but as we have seen from some high-profile recent 'gaffs', even the largest accountancy firms can make expensive mistakes. I doubt if this ruling is going to change Mr. Ellison's life.
I have been trying to submit a VAT Return for a client for the period March - May and was told by HMRC that it would have to be done on the new MTD system. We duly completed the process with HMRC Gateway and ticked all the boxes in Sage but the Return wouldn't submit. When I get to the page that asks for authorisation for Sage to communicate with HMRC, the Gov.uk page 'times out' and keeps doing this repeatedly. HMRC say that they won't be able to phone me for 5 DAYS !!!!! Sage says that it must be an HMRC problem. This return will now be late. My only option is to submit the old-fashioned way, by post, as the HMRC portal won't allow access because I've registered this company for MTD. Another few hours lost that I'll never get paid for.
This article shows just how unaware some business owners are about how they should be dealing with their finances on a daily basis. The current adverts for software are totally misleading. As has been said, many don't know the difference between cash accounting and standard accounting for VAT. The person inputting the data should know the rules, and often they don't.
Businesses should also engage someone to make sure that their software is set up to suit their particular type of business and that the business owner regularly studies the appropriate reports. To find out there are gaps in this knowledge after the year end is absolute folly. Unfortunately, many business owners do not regard the book-keeping as important enough to dedicate much time to.
A slight aside from Tax Codes - my son has just been issued with an Annual Tax Summary 2016-17, which states 'Your tax & NICs - £6154.22. This is 20% of your taxable income. For every £1 of income, you paid 20p in Income Tax and NICs'.
This is not accurate as we all know that the NIC contribution for employees was 12% for 2016-17. Very misleading for 'ordinary' people.
I am astounded that a large supposedly 'caring' company such as John Lewis does not provide clear analysis of how their employees' pay is made up. If they are on a Salary and then sometimes add overtime at an hourly rate, then that is what should show on the payslip, as separate items. All good payroll software provides these options. Hourly paid workers should see the number of hours worked on their payslip. John Lewis deserves the fine, but this should not be taken out of employee bonuses.
I'm dealing with the email invasion by a) not switching on my laptop at weekends and b) only using webmail instead of Outlook so that I have to make an effort to access emails, and my phone is completely out of bounds to emails. I would rather speak to people. I often find that if a customer sends a text or email asking for extra information or they've lost something, they usually find it themselves if I say I'm unable to deal with it tomorrow.
My answers
In 30 years of providing Accountancy services, no client has ever asked me if I am qualified! I gave up my membership of an accountancy organisation years ago as it didn't offer anything for the huge membership fee. I expect that large corporates might require evidence of qualifications, but as we have seen from some high-profile recent 'gaffs', even the largest accountancy firms can make expensive mistakes. I doubt if this ruling is going to change Mr. Ellison's life.
I have been trying to submit a VAT Return for a client for the period March - May and was told by HMRC that it would have to be done on the new MTD system. We duly completed the process with HMRC Gateway and ticked all the boxes in Sage but the Return wouldn't submit. When I get to the page that asks for authorisation for Sage to communicate with HMRC, the Gov.uk page 'times out' and keeps doing this repeatedly. HMRC say that they won't be able to phone me for 5 DAYS !!!!! Sage says that it must be an HMRC problem. This return will now be late. My only option is to submit the old-fashioned way, by post, as the HMRC portal won't allow access because I've registered this company for MTD. Another few hours lost that I'll never get paid for.
This article shows just how unaware some business owners are about how they should be dealing with their finances on a daily basis. The current adverts for software are totally misleading. As has been said, many don't know the difference between cash accounting and standard accounting for VAT. The person inputting the data should know the rules, and often they don't.
Businesses should also engage someone to make sure that their software is set up to suit their particular type of business and that the business owner regularly studies the appropriate reports. To find out there are gaps in this knowledge after the year end is absolute folly. Unfortunately, many business owners do not regard the book-keeping as important enough to dedicate much time to.
A slight aside from Tax Codes - my son has just been issued with an Annual Tax Summary 2016-17, which states 'Your tax & NICs - £6154.22. This is 20% of your taxable income. For every £1 of income, you paid 20p in Income Tax and NICs'.
This is not accurate as we all know that the NIC contribution for employees was 12% for 2016-17. Very misleading for 'ordinary' people.
I am astounded that a large supposedly 'caring' company such as John Lewis does not provide clear analysis of how their employees' pay is made up. If they are on a Salary and then sometimes add overtime at an hourly rate, then that is what should show on the payslip, as separate items. All good payroll software provides these options. Hourly paid workers should see the number of hours worked on their payslip. John Lewis deserves the fine, but this should not be taken out of employee bonuses.
I'm dealing with the email invasion by a) not switching on my laptop at weekends and b) only using webmail instead of Outlook so that I have to make an effort to access emails, and my phone is completely out of bounds to emails. I would rather speak to people. I often find that if a customer sends a text or email asking for extra information or they've lost something, they usually find it themselves if I say I'm unable to deal with it tomorrow.
Should we be awkward
Great idea Tim Robinson - we could all ask for forgotten IDs and passwords on 1st April for all our clients!