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9am Lowdown
AccountingWEB

9am Lowdown: Uber VAT, Fish and chips & automation

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22nd Feb 2017
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Good morning and welcome to Wednesday's 9am Lowdown. Let's see what's happening in the world of accounting. 

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QC challenges Uber on unpaid VAT 

Jolyon Maugham QC has argued in a case submitted to the high court that the taxi app company Uber should be paying VAT on fares.

As reported in the Guardian, Maugham estimates that Uber has almost £20m in unpaid VAT for 2015. He told the newspaper that he believes HMRC was treating big US companies more favourably than continental tax administrations do. “That narrative that HMRC doesn’t really want to discuss is incredibly damaging to people’s perceptions of the fairness of the society they live in. ”

Jo Bertram, the general manager of Uber in the UK, counters that the Uber drivers are “subject to the same VAT laws as any other transportation provider”. But Maugham believes he’s found a way to “ to force HMRC’s hand”. He added:  “I want to force government and Uber to engage with these issues which I think are destructive of the fabric of society.”

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Wired bids farewell to accounting

US tech website Wired has put the knife into the accounting profession in an article where it bids farewell to accounting jobs.

The article said that the fact two commercials in the Superbowl encouraged viewers to trust computers to do their taxes signals that another profession is on “the verge of biting the dust”.

The article explains that the accounting profession had previously escaped the clutches of automation because they require “managing unstructured data emanating from the real world, making judgments, and dealing with actual people.” However,  artificial intelligence can now anlayse data at high volumes without making mistakes.  

Vasant Dhar, the author of the article, concludes: “Historically, machines have been designed to solve specific problems, but now they can now learn autonomously, improving their decision-making while interacting with the real world and collecting data through increasingly sophisticated sensory capabilities.”

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Nuttall to batter VAT on fish and chips 

UKip leader Paul Nuttall will pledge to scrap VAT on fish and chips, as he lays out his “new path for Britain”.

According to the Huffington Post, Nutall plans to slash taxes by removing domestic energy bills from VAT, a move Ukip believes will save the average household £65 a year.

Tax experts have responded to Nuttall’s attempts to erode the VAT base:

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