Tuesday 31st January 2012
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The look of excitement on audit and accounts lecturer Andrew Guntert's face as he came into the office on Monday morning was tangible.
Whether this was due to his afternoon dentist appointment, or the prospect of reading the hot-off-the-press ASB proposals for the future of
UK GAAP, only his dentist will ever know! Further detail on the draft Financial Reporting Standards, rather than Andrew's dental records, is
given within the Audit and Accountancy section below.
As you can imagine, it has been a relatively quiet month for tax news but strikes permitting, today sees the launch of HMRC's new
procedures for civil fraud, the Contractual Disclosure Facility (CDF). You can find out more below.
Finally, whilst we receive a lot of positive feedback on the quality of service and products we provide, we have commissioned an
independent agency to conduct a more formal client survey by telephone. You may recall that last year someone made calls masquerading
as a Mercia employee to extract information so we will be writing to some of you with more details to ensure you know it is a genuine
request. If you do get a call from the agency, hopefully you will find 10 to 15 minutes to answer the questions as we would very much
welcome your feedback.
Nicola Hurley
Director
nicola.hurley@mercia-group.co.uk
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Charities and Academies Update Conferences
Three of our most popular conferences are running in February and March.
Charities - 28 February 2012 at De Vere Holborn Bars, London and 15 March 2012 at Hilton Hotel, Castle Donington
Scottish Charities - 6 March 2012 at Royal Hotel, Bridge of Allan
Academies Update - 27 March 2012 at Hilton National, East Midlands
Click on the conference titles to download a circular or click here to book online.
Budget 2012 - What will you be telling your clients?
This year's Budget, on Wednesday 21 March 2012, provides you with an excellent opportunity to market your practice. We have a range of Budget summary
and tax card products and services that will help you make the most of it whilst keeping your clients informed in a language that they will understand.
To find out more, request FREE printed samples or obtain an online quote visit
http://www.mercia-group.co.uk/budget or call our Marketing Support Team on 0116 258 1242.
Free download: If you don't ask, you don't get!
John Sharkey, Head of Management Training, shares some practical tips on how to generate more referrals from existing clients. They have been extracted
from our business development course 'Delivering Service Excellence and Developing Client Advocacy' notes. Click
here to read on.
Audit and Accountancy Issues
The Future of UK GAAP
The ASB has published revised proposals for the future of financial reporting in the UK and Ireland. These are set out in three draft Financial
Reporting Standards:
- FRED 46 Application of Financial Reporting Requirements (Draft FRS 100);
- FRED 47 Reduced Disclosure Framework (Draft FRS 101); and
- FRED 48 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and RoI (Draft FRS 102).
As noted in previous Newswires, the new proposals are significantly different to those within FREDs 43 to 45 which they replace.
- The proposed framework within the draft FRS 100 will not extend the application of EU-adopted IFRS beyond entities that are required to prepare
IFRS accounts due to EU's IAS Regulation or other legislation (e.g. listed entities).
- A reduced disclosure IFRS framework is also proposed within the draft FRS 101 for qualifying parent and subsidiary entities.
- The draft FRS 102, The Financial Reporting Standard, would then replace all existing FRSs, SSAPs and UITF Abstracts.
- Small companies could continue to use the FRSSE, though the content of this standard will be the subject of future consultation
following proposed changes to the EC Accounting Directives.
Though still based upon IFRS for SMEs, the draft FRS 102 allows accounting treatments that were not permitted within the previous proposals such as
revaluation of fixed assets, capitalisation of borrowing costs and carrying forward certain development costs. The draft FRS 102 also incorporates
Public Benefit Entity requirements and a new 'timing differences plus' approach to taxation. We will be looking at the practical impact of current
financial reporting proposals in future Newswires and our accounting-related courses.
The proposals consult on an effective date of accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2015 with early adoption permitted. All of the related
documents are available on the ASB's website. The consultation period runs to 30 April 2012.
Charities Act 2011
You may recall from our December 2011 newswire that the Charities Act 2011 had received Royal Assent. A key question for many of us is when do we have
to start to refer to the new Act in our accounts and reports? We understand that Charity Commission guidance on the effective date of change is due to be
published shortly and that the 2011 Act will apply to documents issued on or after 14 March 2012, including relevant reports issued after that date. We
recently emailed our Charities Specialist Assignment Manual subscribers with this news. Click
here if you would like to see a copy.
Financial Services Bill
The Government has published the Financial Services Bill which sets out the new financial regulation regime. Proposals see the Financial Services
Authority (FSA) abolished and replaced with a Financial Policy Committee within the Bank of England, and two new regulators: the Prudential Regulatory
Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The PRA will supervise the most complex financial firms in the UK, including banks and insurers. The FCA will regulate financial conduct across the
sector, and deal with the prudential regulation of all financial services firms not covered by the PRA. The FCA will also take over responsibility from
the Office of Fair Trading for consumer credit business.
The Bill is expected to receive Royal Assent by the end of 2012, with the
new regime in place shortly thereafter.
News for Mercia technical manual subscribers
Earlier in January we released updates to our Pension Schemes, LLPs and Clubs Specialist Assignment Manuals. The updates principally take account of
the changes arising from the revised APB Ethical Standards.
If you are a subscriber and have any administrative queries about the updates please contact
karina@mercia-group.co.uk or call her on 0116 258 1200.
Tax Issues
HMRC to introduce new procedures for civil fraud
As part of the Government's commitment to tackle fraud, HMRC's new Contractual Disclosure Facility (CDF) will be launched on 31 January 2012.
HMRC will contact a taxpayer, in writing, to inform them that they are suspected of serious tax fraud and offer them the opportunity to enter
into a contract to disclose that fraud within 60 days. In return, HMRC will agree not to criminally investigate, removing the risk of prosecution by HMRC.
Taxpayers who are not under investigation but who want to admit to tax fraud may fill out a form to voluntarily request that HMRC consider their
suitability for a CDF contractual arrangement. To read more, please click
here.
HMRC issue online filing help for VAT changes
To help businesses with the changes to VAT online filing in April 2012, HMRC have issued a document laying out the help available. To read more,
please click here.
Alternative Dispute Resolution trial for Small and Medium Enterprises
HMRC are extending the Alternative Dispute Resolution trial, which provides Small and Medium Enterprises with an alternative way of resolving
tax disputes in compliance checks. To find out more, please click
here.
EU VAT rates update
A number of VAT rate changes in other EU member states will become effective in 2012. Hungary and Ireland have increased their standard VAT rates from
1 January 2012, the increase in Hungary will making tem the first Member State levying a VAT rate above 25%.
Cyprus, Italy and the Czech Republic are all expected to increase their VAT rates later in 2012. Contact IVC for information on how to reclaim VAT costs
incurred in the EU.
To read more VAT news, click here.
Office Gossip and Idle Chat!
Mercia Twits!
Do you follow us on Twitter or read our blogs? If not, you will have missed out on some fun we had earlier this month when we 'tweeted' a few jokes
(see below). From the tweets we had in response it seems that not all accountants are as dull as the stereotype would have you believe!
Small smiles on grey days
January can be a fairly bleak time for most of us (and, if you work in personal tax, a pretty hectic one too). To relieve the gloom, we thought we'd
share some accountancy-related one-liners designed to raise a weak smile at the least! Here are some to get you started...
| An accountant's favourite dessert | Apple turnover |
| An accountant's second favourite dessert | Profit-eroles |
| An accountant's favourite wizarding spells | Excelliarmus! Deprecio! Taxatius minimo! |
| An accountant's favourite car | AudiTT |
| An accountant's favourite superhero team | The Fantastic (Big) Four |
| An accountant's favourite novel-turned-film | The (Chargeable) Hours |
Got any better accountancy jokes and one-liners? Send them to us!
On a more serious note - but still on the lighter side we also shared
'How to add your favourite websites to your Apple iPhone or iPad as a short cut on your home screen'
followed by
'How to create a icon for any iOS device - Part 2'.
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