Mercia Group 
28 February 2020 00:0031 million taxpayers to get April tax cut
The Government has announced some of the NIC rates for 2020/21. To read more, please click here.
Draft HMRC guidance on off payrolling changes
HMRC has released guidance on the forthcoming changes to off payrolling. To read more, please click here.
As part of a review into changes to the operation of the off-payroll working rules, HMRC has made an announcement to give business more time to prepare. To read more, please click here.
Changes to Employment Allowance
HMRC has released guidance on the forthcoming changes to the Employment Allowance. To read more, please click here. Corporate Criminal Offences investigations
The CCO for the failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion were introduced in 2017. HMRC has nine live CCO investigations with a further 21 possibilities. To read more, please click here.
Naming employers who fail to pay minimum wage to be resumed under revamped rules
Businesses that fail to pay their workers the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage will continue to be publicly named by the Government. To read more, please click here.
AUDIT AND ACCOUNTING
FRC and BEIS guidance on audit, accounting and reporting in the transition period
Now that the UK has left the EU and entered the transition period for Brexit, the FRC has issued two open letters, one covering auditing and the other accounting and corporate reporting, that set out the updated position in each of these areas. The letters point out that the Statutory Instruments that were already drafted do not come into force until the end of the transition period at 11pm on 31 December 2020.
For more detail on the current position, including an overview of the content of these letters, please see our article, Post-Brexit accounting and audit: Where are we now?
Definition of “other entity of public interest”
Following the release of the new Ethical Standard in late 2019, the FRC has now updated its glossary so that the parts of the standard referring to other entities of public interest now have a clear scope. An “other entity of public interest” is an entity which does not meet the definition of a public interest entity but nevertheless is of significant public interest to stakeholders. The glossary then gives a list of entities this includes.
This, along with other key changes arising from the Ethical Standard 2019, will be covered in our live webinar Changes to Audit Standards: Ethical Standard 2019 on 13 March, with the recorded version available on 20 March.
Other publications
Other publications over the past month that you may find of interest include:
- The FRC has issued coronavirus guidance to companies and auditors noting that for some companies, the spread of the coronavirus might need to be included in the principal risks disclosures in the accounts and considered in the audit approach for overseas components.
- The FRC has announced it will be undertaking a review of the responses of companies and auditors to climate change reporting requirements.
- The ICAEW has issued three new Technical Releases:
- Assurance reports on internal controls of service organisations made available to third parties (TECH 01/20 AAF)
- ATOL Reporting Accountants - Reporting to the Civil Aviation Authority (TECH 02/20 AAF)
- Solicitors Regulation Authority Accounts Rules Guidance for reporting accountants following the 2019 changes (TECH 03/20 AAF)
OFFICE GOSSIP & IDLE CHAT
'Time to Talk Day'. We encouraged the team to take time away from their desks and talk to their colleagues over a cup of tea and a slice of cake, allowing them the opportunity to talk about their wellbeing and hopefully breakdown barriers and address the stigma surrounding mental health.
The wait is finally over, the Mercia Podcast is now available for you to listen to anytime, anywhere - with our compliments. Each episode will be packed full of the latest audit, accountancy and tax news. For those who asked, the Podcast is in addition to our monthly round up newswire.
Listen to the Mercia Podcast via the following platforms; Apple, Spotify, Google and of course the Mercia website.
