Business &amp; Accountancy Daily

Image for brookes legal professional privilege and confidential communications

Finance | Brookes: legal professional privilege and confidential communications

Sophie Brookes, partner at Gateley plc, examines a court case in which an FRC investigation of Grant Thornton led to its client, Sports Direct, being forced to hand over sensitive documents

11 Oct 2018

Auditing

Audit Regulations

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Business | Crypto-assets not ‘material risk’ to financial stability

Crypto-assets do not pose a material risk to global financial stability at this time, but vigilant monitoring is needed in light of the speed of market developments, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) has concluded

11 Oct 2018

Business | Deloitte finds 18% hike in robotic process automation

Almost all (95%) organisations that have implemented robotic process automation (RPA) say the technology has improved productivity, according to research from Deloitte, which also indicates 93% report improved compliance, but many are finding it hard to build up scale

11 Oct 2018

Business | Government to look at mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting

KPMG is one of the first signatories of a new race at work charter launched by the Prime Minister as part of the government’s push to drive forward a step-change in the recruitment and progression of ethnic minority employees, which also includes proposals for mandatory pay gap reporting

11 Oct 2018

Image for pre pack deal saves 130 jobs firedoor specialist

Business | Pre-pack deal saves 130 jobs at firedoor specialist

More than 130 jobs have been saved at a North Wales firm after the business and assets were sold as a going concern in a pre-pack deal by administrators from Begbies Traynor

11 Oct 2018

Restructuring & Insolvency

Image for patisserie valerie faces winding order hmrc

| Patisserie Valerie faces winding up order from HMRC

The financial problems at cake and café chain Patisserie Valerie have deepened as its parent company is now subject to a winding up order brought by HMRC over £1.14m of unpaid tax

11 Oct 2018

Tax

Image for ps245k tax bill kebab shop owner

Business | £245K tax bill for kebab shop owner

A jailed Warrington takeaway owner, who failed to declare his sales in order to evade tax, must repay £245,000 or face another two years behind bars, a court has ruled

11 Oct 2018

Image for eu adopts proposal cut vat e books

Tax | EU adopts proposal to cut VAT on e-books

The Professional Publishers Association (PPA) has welcomed an EU decision to reduce VAT on online publications, including electronic books, newspapers and periodicals

11 Oct 2018

10 Oct 2018

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Business | Mental health: supporting employees

To coincide with World Mental Health Day, Rob Alder, head of business development at AAT, offers tips on how to identify and help to reduce stress in employees

10 Oct 2018

Image for charities fraud and internal culture part 1

Business | Charities: fraud and internal culture - part 1

In the first in a series on the charity sector, James Bunney finds that fraud is exacerbated by an abundance of trust and the reluctance of trustees to confront instances of fraud head-on

10 Oct 2018

Finance | Regulatory compliance in the run-up to Brexit: issues for FDs

Alex Wolff, senior vice president of strategy at Kyriba gives a snapshot of the significant regulatory compliance and accounting changes affecting UK finance directors and treasury teams from IFRS 16 to GDPR penalties and MiFiD II

10 Oct 2018

Finance | Roberts: rebuilding trust and integrity in UK auditors

With the Big Four audit market facing a competition review by the Competition and Markets Authority, Jon Roberts, partner and head of assurance at mid-tier firm Grant Thornton UK, asks how to rebuild trust and integrity for the longer term in the audit profession

10 Oct 2018

Auditing

Corporate Governance

Accounting Consultations

Image for high street cake chain warns potentially fraudulent accounting

Finance | High street cake chain warns of ‘potentially fraudulent’ accounting

Upmarket cake and café chain Patisserie Valerie has suspended its chief financial officer and halted trading of its shares on AIM following the discovery of ‘significant, potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities’

10 Oct 2018

Business | Clothing wholesaler sentenced for VAT fraud

A Rochdale clothing wholesaler has given a two-year suspended sentence for forging documents to defraud almost £120,000 in VAT repayments

10 Oct 2018

Image for ots seeks views tax impact smes

Tax | OTS seeks views on tax impact on SMEs

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has published a call for evidence and an online survey to seek views about tax impact on businesses, particular those at the smaller end of the spectrum, with the aim of identifying opportunities to reduce the regulatory burden

10 Oct 2018

| Companies against the idea of workers on boards

Most companies think that having workers on boards is not a good idea and the majority are not planning to introduce this approach, according to research from ICSA: The Governance Institute in the wake of proposed changes to the UK Corporate Governance Code

10 Oct 2018

Business | FCA consults on ‘no deal’ regulatory plans

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is consulting on proposals for amendments to its standards and financial services passporting rules, plus the regulatory regime for credit ratings agencies and data reporting services providers in the event the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019 without an implementation period

10 Oct 2018

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Business | Auditors pan EU customs IT systems delay

In the week that HMRC’s progress in developing the UK’s new customs declaration system (CDS) came under fire, a report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA) says implementation of customs IT systems in the EU has suffered from a series of delays, and some key elements will not be available for the 2020 deadline

10 Oct 2018

AI & Technology

9 Oct 2018

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Finance | CMA launches audit market review

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced the launch of its anticipated study of the audit sector, designed to examine concerns that it is not working well for the economy or investors because of the dominance of the Big Four and a lack of competition

9 Oct 2018

Auditing

Corporate Governance

Audit Regulations

Accounting Consultations

Image for charity accounts part 6 sofa and expenditure

Finance | Charity accounts part 6: SoFA and expenditure

This article, the sixth in our series on charity accounts, will focus on the types of expenditure which must be included in the Statement of financial activities (SoFA) as soon as it is incurred and how to account for it

9 Oct 2018

Business | Two thirds of young finance professionals threatened by AI

According to research by Metapraxis, a financial analytics company, opinion among millennials employed in financial services is mixed regarding the impact of emerging technologies on the sector

9 Oct 2018

Business | Financing company boss banned over £4m false invoices

The boss of a financing company has been disqualified as a director for ten years after heading a false invoice scheme to secure £4m of illegitimate funds

9 Oct 2018

Image for governments counter fraud profession goes live

Business | Government’s counter fraud profession goes live

October 9 sees the formal launch of the government’s first government counter fraud profession (GCFP) which is intended to spread best practice across the public sector and encourage a focus on the prevention and investigation of fraud

9 Oct 2018

Image for tax reliefs fuel creative industry boom

Tax | Tax reliefs fuel creative industry boom

Tax reliefs across film, high-end television, video games, animation programmes, and children’s TV are powering record levels of production in the UK, resulting in an overall economic contribution of £7.9bn in 2016, according to research commissioned by the British Film Institute (BFI) and other sector bodies

9 Oct 2018

Business | Jet-setting tax fraud couple to repay £350k

A Liverpool couple who were jailed over their failure to pay any VAT, National Insurance or income tax on two businesses they ran, while also fraudulently claiming benefits, have been ordered to repay £355,000 or face more time behind bars

9 Oct 2018

Image for cfos brexit concerns record high

Business | CFO’s Brexit concerns at record high

CFOs are currently more worried about the long term impact of Brexit than at any time since the referendum according to a quarterly survey from Deloitte, which shows marked falls in optimism and risk appetite

9 Oct 2018