Business &amp; Accountancy Daily

Image for irish businessman loses ps43m tax refund bid backgammon win

Tax | Irish businessman loses £4.3m tax refund bid on backgammon win

Irish businessman and racehorse owner J P McManus has lost a battle in the US courts over his claim that $5.2m (£4.25m) of US tax withheld on his gambling winnings from a game of backgammon should be refunded under the US-Ireland double tax avoidance treaty

7 Mar 2017

Tax | Offshore tax evasion: compliance and penalties - part 1

Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with the avalanche of government announcements on tax avoidance and evasion. In the first of a two part series, Jason Collins, a member of the CIOT’s management of taxes sub-committee and partner at Pinsent Mason, provides an overview of the rapidly changing tax compliance landscape for offshore evasion

7 Mar 2017

Tax | £40k plus car purchases face higher road tax rates

From next month purchasers of new cars valued £40,000 and more will have to pay a five-year charge as well as the annual road tax rate, while cars registered before 1 April 2017 will not be affected

7 Mar 2017

Tax | HMRC to contact SA online users with invalid repayment requests

HMRC has updated its contact and phishing warnings guidance to inform self assessment (SA) online users that they could be contacted via telephone if HMRC has been unable to validate a repayment request, from 13 March 2017

7 Mar 2017

Business | Cambridgeshire firms merge to develop expertise

Cambridge-based tax, accountancy, legal and financial planning firm Websters has announced that local chartered accountancy firm Anderson & Co has joined the business, in a move designed to expand its areas of expertise

7 Mar 2017

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Business | Grant Thornton partners with Cranfield for apprenticeship MBA

Grant Thornton UK is teaming up with Cranfield School of Management to develop and deliver an executive MBA (EMBA) programme funded via the new apprenticeship levy

7 Mar 2017

Tax | HMRC issues guidance on tax avoidance penalties for partnerships

HMRC has published guidance on the penalty regime for partnerships which have used a tax avoidance scheme in circumstances where a partnership follower notice has been issued to the representative partner and they have not taken the necessary corrective action on time

7 Mar 2017

Tax | Record number of FDs hit with £5k tax accounting non-compliance fine

A record number of finance directors at the UK’s largest businesses faced fines of £5,000 for failures in tax accounting last year, according to analysis by law firm Pinsent Masons, which says HMRC is getting tougher on any failures to comply with the senior accounting officer (SAO) regime

7 Mar 2017

Business | Seven-year ban for failure to co-operate with liquidator

A director from Dundee who failed to co-operate with the liquidator and deliver up the company’s accounting records when his business was wound up has been disqualified for seven years, following an Insolvency Service investigation which found it was not possible to verify the company’s activities

7 Mar 2017

Restructuring & Insolvency

Called to Account

6 Mar 2017

Image for vat flat rate scheme what new rules mean

Tax | VAT flat rate scheme: what the new rules mean

A rise in the levy for the VAT flat rate scheme from April 2017 will hit limited cost traders and may wipe out the benefits, warns Benjamin Grunberg ACA, partner at Grunberg & Co

6 Mar 2017

Tax | Corbyn faces questions over tax return

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s tax affairs are under scrutiny after claims were made he may have failed to declare income as opposition leader on his newly-published tax returns

6 Mar 2017

Business | ICAEW plans to rebrand image but no name change

The ICAEW will be adopting a new brand from April 2017 after ‘a year researching [its] brand with key stakeholder groups’, a newsletter to its members seen by CCH Daily has revealed

6 Mar 2017

Image for sec uses satellite imagery unearth 33bn accounting fraud

Finance | SEC uses satellite imagery to unearth $3.3bn accounting fraud

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to take enforcement action against Mexico-based homebuilding company Desarrolladora Homex, after deploying satellite imagery to uncover a $3.3bn (£2.68bn) accounting fraud relating to the fake sales of more than 100,000 non-existent homes over a three-year period

6 Mar 2017

Tax | Martin Clunes loses tax appeal anonymity claim

Former Men Behaving Badly star and TV celebrity Martin Clunes has lost his case at a First Tier Tribunal (FTT) to keep his name and details private in a forthcoming tax appeal over whether the actor is entitled to set the cost of cosmetic surgery against his earnings in the calculation of his income tax liability

6 Mar 2017

Finance | London charity censured for poor due diligence and monitoring

An inquiry by the Charity Commission into the London-based charity Human Aid UK, undertaken following concerns over its controls around fundraising and the end use of charitable funds, has found poor due diligence and monitoring put the charity’s assets at risk

6 Mar 2017

Business | Second ‘phoenix’ firm disputes Arthur Andersen legacy

A row has broken out after a European-based company has claimed to have resurrected the Arthur Andersen brand, more than three years after a US tax consultancy also laid claim to the Andersen name and announced the development of a global network

6 Mar 2017

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Tax | Spring Budget 2017: what to expect

This Wednesday marks the last ever spring Budget where Chancellor Philip Hammond could address anything from a raft of new tax changes to a review on existing initiatives, with accounting firms making their own predictions on what could and should be included

6 Mar 2017

Finance | Radian Capital switches auditor to BDO

Listed Radian Group, a social housing, care and support services provider, has dropped incumbent auditor Deloitte in favour of mid-tier firm BDO LLP with immediate effect

6 Mar 2017

Auditing

Corporate Governance

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Business | Apprentices and employers unite for National Apprenticeship Week

Today marks the start of the tenth annual National Apprenticeship Week 2017 (NAW 2017) which brings together apprentices and employers in a series of events, with half of school leavers considering an apprenticeship as a route into employment over a university degree

6 Mar 2017

Business | Accountant’s salaries grow by 6% as vacancies rise

Accountant’s average salaries have increased by 6.4% year-on-year, with job vacancies in the accounting sector growing by 7.3% showing continued confidence in the profession, according to independent job site CV-Library

6 Mar 2017

Image for top qc fails third bid reduce ps1m plus tax penalties

Tax | Top QC fails in third bid to reduce £1m-plus tax penalties

A leading barrister has failed in his latest appeal to an Upper Tribunal in a long running dispute about over more than £1m of penalties imposed by HMRC for his failure to comply with three information notices, two relating to income tax and one in connection with inheritance tax relating to the estate of his late father

6 Mar 2017

3 Mar 2017

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Business | Top 75 Firms trainees survey 2017: the trainee perspective

CCH Daily’s Amy Austin speaks to a selection of apprentices and graduates at leading accounting firms to find out how they juggle working life with time to study for their accounting qualifications

3 Mar 2017

Top 75 Surveys

Business | Called to account: March 2017

The latest scandals and penalties including a businessman who hid true income in £83k tax fraud, jail for farmers who milked £1.9m in VAT scam, heating company accounting records ‘hot air’

3 Mar 2017

Called to Account

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Business | PwC in Blockchain prototype for London insurance market

PwC has created a working Blockchain prototype for the London Market Target Operating Model (TOM) Innovation Exchange

3 Mar 2017

Business | Death threats for PwC Oscar duo

The two PwC accountants in the spotlight following a very public confusion over who won the ‘best picture’ award at this year’s Oscars ceremony have now been given bodyguards following reports they have received death threats on social media after their home addresses and photos of their families were published in the media

3 Mar 2017

Image for woolf boardroom pay escalates governance suffers

Finance | Woolf: boardroom pay escalates as governance suffers

Excessive director pay is a scourge across big business and it needs to be curbed, says Emile Woolf FCA, former forensic accountant and audit committee chair

3 Mar 2017

Auditing

Corporate Governance

Image for financial services expertise remain post brexit

Business | Financial services expertise to remain post Brexit

As part of the process of preparations for triggering Article 50 to leave the EU, government ministers have held a roundtable underlining their commitment to maintaining London’s position as a global financial hub

3 Mar 2017

Image for agent provocateur sold pre pack deal

Business | Agent Provocateur sold in pre-pack deal

Upmarket lingerie brand, Agent Provocateur, has been bought by Mike Ashley, through Sports Direct-backed Four Marketing in a pre-pack administration deal, months after the company faced an investigation from KPMG over its accounting practices

3 Mar 2017

Restructuring & Insolvency

Image for call clarity over public sector employment status changes

Tax | Call for clarity over public sector employment status changes

The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) is calling for more information about how public sector workers can appeal against a change in their employment status following the introduction of new rules around IR35 in April, and is warning there is a risk some will lose income as a result of ‘arbitrary’ decisions

3 Mar 2017

Finance | Integrated Reporting Framework up for review

Three years after publication of the International Integrated Reporting Framework, the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) has announced a two-month consultation to gauge businesses' views on the implementation of the framework, to inform on furthur development

3 Mar 2017

| People in the news: Mazars, Wilkins Kennedy, AiB

In the latest accountancy jobs moves, Mazars promotes one of its team members to partner, a head is elected for Wilkins Kennedy’s new unit established in Maidstone, Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) gains a non-executive board member to inform the Scottish government

3 Mar 2017

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Business | FRC seeking powers to sanction directors

In a speech marking 25 years since the Cadbury report, which ushered in a new era of corporate governance in the UK and introduced the concept of ‘comply or explain’ Sir Win Bischoff, chair of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has called for wider powers for the regulator so it can hold company directors to account for corporate failures and impose sanctions

3 Mar 2017