Bookkeepers Newsletter April

25 April 2012

ICB April Newsletter - 46,563 Subscribers

Why the new Members Dinner should be in your diary

Tickets are now on sale for this year's Bookkeepers Summit on 7th November. Seasoned summit attendees will be familiar with the beautiful surroundings of our London conference centre, but the Members Dinner is new to us all. Students and members will be joining together to discuss a lot more than just the results of the American Presidential Election.

ICB needs you!

It is vital that the ICB Advisory Council is populated with bright and opinionated members, so make sure you apply for your seat at the table by the end of April, or encourage your local branch to nominate someone.

Ahead of its official launch on 1st May, ICB told a select number of practices about new online service, AML Online, and so far it's been used to carry out a record-breaking 1340 risk assessments. AML Online is available free of charge to all bookkeeping practices for whom ICB acts as supervisor under the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR). Find out how to start using the tool today...

Member of the Month - Margaret Crawford

ICB member, Margaret Crawford MICB CB.Dip, talks us through her inspiring journey to becoming a bookkeeping franchisee with three staff members...

Scottish Conference 2012-Report

Positive praise abounded for ICB bookkeepers at last month's conference in Edinburgh, find out what happened and why Ministers Fergus Ewing and Fiona McLeod think bookkeepers are so important.....

Region of the Month - Wales

Wales, the home of St David, Sir Tom Jones, Catherine Zeta Jones and Grand Slam Rugby Champions of 2012. The people of Wales are proud of their heritage and their culture, and they have every reason to be. Adding to Wales' recent successes, ICB bookkeepers in South Wales are paving the way for an ICB presence in other parts of Wales. We caught up with Sharon Liddon, regional chair of the region to see what Wales will have in store for us in the future....

Changes to Child Maintenance DEOs

This month's article from CIPP's Diana Bruce the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission's introduction to a new Deduction of Earnings Order where the protected earnings are a percentage of fixed pay as opposed to a set amount under the existing system. Employers will be required to submit a different schedule of payments and there will also be a new payment method....

The key principles covered at ICB Level I and II - such as VAT, cash books, trial balances and bank reconciliations - are essential knowledge for any bookkeeper. Completing those modules, and passing the associated exams, puts you in a strong position to begin or develop your finance career. However, the learning doesn't stop there for any ambitious bookkeeping professional. ICB welcomes guest contributor, Gill Tucker from Home Learning College...

ICB members may recall recent articles ICB has published to warn against 'scam' publishers who offer advertising space within emergency services or charity publications. ICB was alerted to the issue by certain Practice Licence holders who had themselves been unwittingly targeted. ICB would advise members to excercise caution and is pleased to publish details of two recent cases in which such publishers have been brought to justice....

Alderleys Limited, a company claiming to sell business-to-business advertising in an online directory and safety and emergency services booklets has been wound-up in the public interest by the High Court in Manchester following an investigation by Company Investigations of the Insolvency Service...

Designer boutique VAT fraudsters bagged

Two fraudsters have been sentenced at the Old Bailey for attempting to steal £220,000 through a complex fraud involving Chanel designer goods. They spent their money on a Chelsea penthouse, private schooling for their children and gambling at high-end casinos before being caught by HMRC. Husband and wife Emmanuel and Behnaz Scotts, of Chelsea West London, bought goods from various Chanel boutiques in Chelsea and Mayfair, pretending to be wealthy foreign customers....

A Dorset yacht broker who charged £210,000 VAT on the sale of six luxury motor boats and then failed to pay the money to HMRC has been jailed. Following investigations by HMRC officers, James Williams (51) was found guilty on six counts of cheating the public revenue and one count of false accounting....

Free payroll software!

ICB has teamed up with EARNIE payroll to offer a range of payroll solutions to ICB members. Whether you currently offer payroll services to clients, are thinking of doing so in the future, or are studying for your bookkeeping qualifications, we would like to offer you a free evaluation copy of EARNIE payroll to try....

Free support launched to boost SMEs

A new series of free business support events, aimed at the owners of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), has been launched today in Liverpool by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and Companies House. The IPO also outlined its range of support for SMEs in a new paper published today. 'Get It Right - First Time' is aimed at business owners looking for help with protecting their Intellectual Property (IP)...

Two restaurant owners from Glasgow have been detained on suspicion of failing to pay the right amount of VAT, in an investigation by HMRC. One business and three domestic premises were visited in Glasgow on 16th April as part of the ongoing taskforce operation targeting restaurants across Scotland...

People trading on the internet who haven't paid all the tax they owe have been offered the opportunity to come forward and pay up under an HMRC campaign, the e-Markets Disclosure Facility. Online traders can take advantage of the amnesty by contacting HMRC online....

West Midlands plumber David Williams, 53, has been jailed for 12 months for evading £91,000 of income tax and national insurance during 10 years of trading as a self-employed plumber. Nine more plumbers have been arrested and investigations are on-going. HMRC targeted plumbers in a special campaign in 2011....

Exam writer and moderator wanted

ICB is currently expanding its pool of examiners / moderators / item writers and is therefore seeking suitably qualified individuals to join the team for various levels of ICB qualification. You will need to have appropriate subject knowledge and be qualified to at least one level above the level of qualification you wish to be involved with....

Reporting performance to the board

The latest Case Study by Dr Philip Dunn, Head of Education at ICB, covering vital information to help you and your business

Margaret Crawford

Interview with Margaret Crawford MICB CB.Dip, Member of ICB and Franchisee of The Local Bookkeeper

Wales

Interview with the Wales Regional chair about their current meetings and visions for the future

Lancashire Branch Meeting
Thursday 19 April 2012

Somerset Inaugural Branch Meeting
Tuesday 24 April 2012

London Branch Meeting
Wednesday 25 April 2012

Tyne and Wear Branch Meeting
Wednesday 25 April 2012

Suffolk Branch Meeting
Monday 30 April 2012

Dorset Branch Meeting
Monday 30 April 2012

Surrey Branch Meeting
Wednesday 02 May 2012

West Yorkshire Branch Meeting
Thursday 03 May 2012

East Sussex Inaugural Branch Meeting
Wednesday 09 May 2012

Hampshire Branch Meeting
Thursday 10 May 2012

Kent Branch Meeting
Monday 14 May 2012

Your time is now

At the recent Scottish Conference in Edinburgh, I made a very bullish statement to the gathered throng of bookkeepers: "This is your time". Not quite the Gettysburgh Address I'll grant you, but I certainly felt a Lincoln-esque moment coming on.

Quite simply; the years of pushing the ICB water relentlessly up the proverbial hill finally seems to be paying off. Bookkeepers are being taken seriously; their place in the financial machine is finally being recognised. But now the big one. The government is simplifying tax for the UK's smallest businesses - which could be either you, your employers, your clients, or your potential clients.

Simplified Tax for small businesses - have your say.

Those of you who have attended ICB seminars or the London Bookkeepers Summit will know that ICB has for some time been part of discussions on how to simplify the Tax system for small businesses Government has now put forward its long anticipated proposals.

From April 2013, the Government proposes to introduce a voluntary cash basis Tax system for small businesses along with simplified arrangements for some business expenses. This will affect:

Most self-employed people, particularly those whose earnings come from their own work
The Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) proposed that small businesses with receipts of up to £30,000 should be able to use the scheme
The Government would like to explore a higher threshold so that small businesses with receipts of less than £77,000 would be eligible, and they could continue to use it until their receipts rise to more than £150,000 in any year.

This is big news for ICB bookkeepers.

Read more

How much do you earn?

At a time when politicians are squabbling over what they earn and how much Tax they pay (or more pertinently, avoid) it would appear that HM Treasury (HMT) is about to delve deeper into what bookkeepers earn for their toils.

HMT has just released its commissioning note for this year's annual return. Every year the Money Laundering Supervisors have to outline what they have done in the previous twelve months to ensure that their supervised population has adhered to the Money Laundering regulations (MLR). We have to list how many members we supervise; how many we have contacted in the course of our MLR activity; how many we have visited; how many we have disciplined.

Now for the good news

You can now wave goodbye to those handwritten MLR8s. The ground breaking online return is now available and should be used as soon as possible. Access it via the main MLR page bookkeepers.org.uk/mlr

The new system replaces the MLR1, 2 and 3 paper-based Risk Assessment and Due Diligence forms.

Ask not what your Institute can do for you......

Could you give some of your time and, most of all, your experience to assist ICB in its development of policy and direction? Then why not:

Apply for election to the ICB Advisory Council
Take part in ICB's anonymous Annual Members Survey