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From the Chief Executive I am hugely looking forward to the start of 'seminar season' in two weeks time and I very much look forward to meeting and talking to many of you. We have received more bookings than anticipated for the Members CPD days, which has allowed us to move to larger meeting rooms at several locations and, as a result, the booking periods have been extended for the first week's events in Scotland and the North. We shall visit Aberdeen, Edinburgh...

The ICB’s MLR Annual Return (MLR8) has been amended because some practices completing the form have misunderstood what was being asked in one of the questions. Under the heading ‘Your brief reasons for this assessment’, quite a few people wrote ‘because of MLR’ or ‘Because the ICB told me to’ We know the reasons behind why you are completing the assessment; we’re quite a bright bunch here really. The purpose of the question is to help I...

ICB director of operations, Pat Marshall, has carried out a detailed review of two different software packages and her reports are available to download in pdf format here. We would strongly advise you to have a read through the reviews and find out more about these excellent software packages, both of which were represented at our inaugural annual conference in November. To download the pdf reports, please click on the logos below:       &nbs...

The ICB’s new membership structure will mean that all members will be competent in both manual and computerised bookkeeping at each level following the introductory Level I. All existing members and new applicants are expected to be able to satisfy these requirements by the end of September 2011. The changes have been made as a matter of necessity to ensure we comply with the new Ofqual qualification structure, which sets out the competences needed in bookkeeping, payroll and accountan...

Ray Cross, ICB director of compliance Following feedback from members during the successful completion of the first programme of audit visits, The ICB is amending some of the MLR forms contained in the MLR Practice Guidance Manual. Forms MLR 1, 2, 3 and 8 have been amended in order to make them slightly more user-friendly and to provide for a more meaningful outcome. These forms are now downloadable from the MLR section of the website so please use these forms from now on. The old versions ...

Are you ready? Are you and your employer or clients ready for the forthcoming changes to the PAYE system? From this year all employers and contractors must file their Employer Annual Returns online by the 19 May deadline. This now includes small businesses with fewer than 50 staff, which until now still had the option of filing a paper return. Members who attended last year’s ICB Regional Seminars were briefed on the changes by a team from HMRC and were given instructions on how to c...

It would appear that many bookkeepers are not quite as trustworthy as perhaps we might all presume. There has been a recent marked increase in the number of bookkeepers who have been taken to Court for embezzling money out of their clients. An article in this month's InVOICE reports on a Stockport bookkeeper recently brought to trial, and you may remember last year’s case of Annette Yeomans who embezzled $9.9 million from California-based Quality Woodworks Inc, the company for which sh...

The proposed rise in National Insurance contributions (NICs) should be scrapped in favour of an increase in the standard rate of VAT, a leading business group has argued. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) estimates that raising VAT by 1% to 18.5% would net the Government an extra £4.5 billion. It claims that this, coupled with ‘targeted spending cuts’, will help to reduce the UK’s budget deficit and remove the need for higher NICs in 2011. Although the planned 1...

Sage Line 50 v11 product life is to end very soon, which could result in users being unsupported and at risk from issues that will not be rectified by Sage.   More importantly, Sage V11 is missing some features that have since, or are about to, become mandatory, such as online filing of VAT returns. Using this version of Sage could leave users with inaccessible data that cannot be recovered, or worse still, corrupted data that cannot be fixed. We strongly recommend that ICB members ...

HMRC gives medical professionals chance to own up to undeclared income HMRC has announced a new facility called the Tax Health Plan (THP) that will provide medical professionals with a limited opportunity to disclose all previously undeclared income in return for a reduced penalty. HMRC has run similar schemes over the last couple of years, such as the disclosure of offshore bank accounts at the end of 2009, but this is the first time HMRC has used its new powers to target a specific indust...

Nearly 3,000 businesses in the UK, have benefited from more than £700m of affordable, easy access funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Government has revealed. The 2008 Pre-Budget Report announced that up to £4bn of EIB finance had been secured for funding SME capital investment between 2008 and 2011. Participating banks have secured £1.39bn of funding and approved £726m of loans, covering 2,769 small firms. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) c...

A bookkeeper from Southport has been jailed for three years and four months for stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from his employers has been ordered to pay back over £150,000 in compensation. David Moore, 41, of Segars Lane, Southport, admitted taking the money from Typolac Limited, a coloured card manufacturer based in Skelmersdale, where he worked as a bookkeeper between 1997 and 2007. Following his conviction, financial investigators from Lancashire Constabulary conducted a...

Employers have been issued with guidance on the new right of employees to request training in the workplace. Under the new legislation, eligible employees in England will have a legal right to ask their employer to give them time away from their core duties to undertake relevant training. While employers will be obliged to seriously consider requests, they may still refuse a request where there is a good business reason for doing so. The legislation is set to come into force on 6 April 201...

New plans outlined by the government will mean that new fathers will be able to take up to six months of parental leave. Men are currently entitled to take up to two weeks of paid paternity leave, while women are granted up to nine months of paid maternity leave, and a further three months of unpaid leave. Under the proposals, women will be able to transfer the final three months of their leave, if they return to work after the initial six months. Equality Minister Harriet Harman said tha...

What legislation is in the pipeline for 2010 and beyond? By Karen Thomson MIPPdip – 15 February 2010 Associate Director of Policy, Research, and Strategic Visibility for the Institute of Payroll Professionals       Introduction As you know the Chancellor held his Pre-Budget Report on 9 December 2009, and of course we are expecting another before the General Election is announced. Irrespective of the election result, key legislation is already in the pipeline that w...

ICB head of education, Dr Philip E Dunn, provides this instructive text on Tangible Fixed Assets.  The article considers the factors: completeness, accuracy, valuation, existence, beneficial ownership and presentation and disclosure when accounting for Tangible Fixed Assets. Click here to download the pdf file                          

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