Courses

Speaker: Tim Palmer - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

A very practical topical tax update for accountants, both in practice and in industry, covering both pre and post 5th April planning points.

Content

The course will include key topics such as:

• Recent tax developments and news
• Business tax update
• Pre and post 5th April – action points and forward planning
• IR35…Where are we now?
• Basis period reform
• CIS tax update and planning
• Stamp Duty Refresher
• Capital allowances update, under the new regime
• Personal tax update and planning
• Trading deductions - what is allowable or not?
• Practical VAT changes, developments and planning
• Capital gains tax refresher
• Corporation tax update and planning
• General tax planning resulting from recent tax changes
• Dealing with HMRC investigations
• Inheritance tax planning
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Case studies

Speaker:Tim Palmer - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

This course will provide delegates with a detailed insight into tax and NIC efficient benefits in kind that employers can provide to employees and directors, and illustrate the remuneration planning opportunities available.

Content

• PAYE & NIC refresher, benefits-in-kind review and planning
• Tax and NIC efficient benefits, for owners, senior management and employees
• Company car tax update
• P11D case study
• Salary sacrifice arrangements
• The Cycle to Work Scheme
• The benefits of employers providing electric vehicles
• Reducing your salary to receive pension payments
• Air miles
• Payrolling benefits in kind
• The HMRC PAYE questionnaire
• Employee Ownership Trusts
• PSA agreements
• Bonus or dividend?
• Remuneration planning for directors and employees
• Benefits, tax traps and their solutions
• Advanced tax planning opportunities relating to benefits and remuneration packages
• Practical case studies and general overview

Speaker: Karen Morrall & William Taaffe - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

Cyber Security is important to Accountants today and in the future. This engaging and high value course uses business language, provides a great introduction to cyber security and will enhance your cyber knowledge.

As ICO have stated with regards to data protection law ‘ ... staff training and awareness of data protection principles is linked with security and accountability. Organisations which are not training staff and providing refresher courses may find it difficult to demonstrate compliance with the security principle and the accountability principle.

Content

The course provides a high level overview of :

• What Cyber Security actually is?
• What is Cyber Risk?
• Introduces Cyber terminology
• Why and how you might be targeted
• Red flags to watch out for
• Cyber stories of real-life cases to illustrate throughout
• Practical tips & steps that can be put into use immediately
• How you can practically get involved to enhance your organisation’s own cyber posture & improve its cyber resilience
• How you can utilize this knowledge to add value to your clients

Speaker: Alexandra Durrant - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

This course will review the changes in the last year and those planned for the future in relation to PAYE and National Insurance legislation. The course will also consider changes to employment law where relevant to payroll, look at employment status, touch on taxation of benefits in kind and the changes to maternity, paternity and adoption provisions.

Content

• Update on employment issues relevant to payroll
• PAYE update for 2024/25 tax year
• National insurance update for 2024/25 tax year
• National Minimum Wage rates from 1 April 2024
• Review of voluntary payrolling of benefits
• Update on maternity, paternity, adoption and other parental leave/pay issues for 2024/25
• Ongoing IR35 and update on off-payroll working
• Automatic enrolment update and any current issues
• RTI (Real Time Information): update and any current issues
• Review of recent HMRC consultation relating to payroll matters
• New topics will be added if relevant

Speaker: Stephanie Cartledge - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

An interactive workshop based around a case study of an unincorporated business which will include advising clients and preparing calculations on a variety of topics from source material similar to that seen in a day-to-day tax role.

By the end of the course delegates will have consolidated their knowledge on the tax treatment of unincorporated businesses and some of the issues facing them.

Content

Content will include:

• Calculating trading profits including basic capital allowances
• The income tax computation
• Calculating capital gains tax

Speaker: Giles Mooney - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

This course will cover the main tax planning areas that are relevant to the tax affairs of individuals and their families. It will highlight pitfalls that must be avoided majoring on developments in the last twelve months or so. The course will cover the planning points that apply to individuals both in their personal capacities and as directors or shareholders of family companies.

Content

Topics will be drawn from:

• Taxation and the family
• Husband and wife
• Children, including the higher rate charge on child benefit
• Use of trusts and family investment companies
• Personal investments
• Tax efficient investments
• Pensions
• Director/shareholder tax
• Husband and wife companies
• Benefits in kind
• Extracting profit from the family company
• Capital taxes
• The maximisation of capital gains tax reliefs
• Essential inheritance tax planning

Speaker: Giles Mooney - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

During this seminar a number of CGT and IHT planning opportunities available to individuals and trusts will be considered.

The session will include an appraisal of the most recent changes in legislation and case law, as well as the protective steps that clients may need to take.

Content

Topics will be drawn from:

• CGT business reliefs
• Incorporation v disincorporation
• CGT on the sale of a business
• Replacement of business assets
• CGT personal reliefs
• Private residences
• Use of trusts
• Inheritance tax
• Agricultural and business property reliefs
• Transferable nil rate band
• Protecting the family home
• Will drafting/reviewing
• Deeds of variation
• Pre-owned assets

Speakers: Rebecca Benneyworth & Malcolm Greenbaum - £200 plus VAT.

Objectives

This popular course is presented by two of the country’s leading taxation lecturers and will benefit all practitioners and staff involved in giving tax advice to their clients and who need to keep abreast of current developments. To ensure that delegates are kept fully up to date the content of this course will be set shortly before presentation to take account of the changes as they occur. All major changes will be explained and tax planning opportunities identified.

Content

• Budget and Finance Act Review
• Statements of Practice
• Changes in Personal, Tax Business Tax, Corporation Tax, and VAT
• Employee Taxation
• Changes in Capital Taxes
• Tax administration

Speaker: Louise Dunford - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

The course will look at recent areas of regulatory change and provide an update to practitioners on what they need to be doing to comply.

Content

The specific course content will depend on changes in the period before the course is run, but in general the course will follow the same structure covering:
GDPR

• Guidance on application to practice
• Liability for disclosure
• Changes to GDPR as a result of Brexit

Money Laundering

• Key responsibilities for accountants
• Updated money laundering guidance for accountants, an overview
• Management of risk, red flags, and CDD obligations
• Recent convictions

Professional negligence

• The engagement letter – issues to consider
• Recent litigation against accountants – what does it tell us?
• Liability to third parties – are you properly protected?

Speaker: Louise Dunford - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

The course covers a number of areas of law, concentrating on the topics likely to be most useful to you in your day-today dealings with SME clients and staff, as well as matters relating to regulation of the accountancy practice. The content detailed below is given for guidance only.

Content

Company Law

• Directors, directors’ duties, other personal liability
• Minority protection
• Shareholder Agreements
• Share Purchase Agreements
• Valuation Clauses - dos and don’ts
• Transfer of Shares - practical guidance
• Reflective Loss - critical new cases
• Companies House Reform - the implications

Business Law

• Selling a business - pitfalls
• Professional Negligence - recent developments
• Restrictive covenants
• Recent cases on general partnerships and on TUPE

Employment Law

• Employment Status, including IR35
• Payroll developments
• Minimum wage - recent cases
• Working time
• Family Friendly Reforms
• Unlawful discrimination
• Current concerns including WFH, health & safety, and flexible working

Speaker: John Selwood - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

This course will look at the real world accounting problems being faced by practitioners, and the real world, practical solutions. FRS 102 and FRS 105 will be considered together with any relevant ICAEW guidance. Presentation, disclosure and accounting issues will all be covered.

Content

This is a topical course and the content will reflect that. The course may cover issues such as:

• Related party disclosures
• Getting small company disclosures right
• Presentation of loans
• Post balance sheet events
• Going concern disclosure
• Transactions with directors
• Disclosure of guarantees and security
• Accounting for investment properties
• Issues for property developers and property investors
• Revenue recognition
• Deferred tax
• Accounting for grants
• Meeting minimum disclosure requirements for small and micro companies
• Accounts filing at Companies House online

Speaker: John Selwood - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

The course will look at real life problems that auditors have recently experienced and examine practical and efficient solutions.

Content

The course will cover the following topical problem areas:

• Risk assessment – rebuttable presumption of fraud in revenue etc
• Feedback from quality inspections
• Auditor independence
• Addressing the risk of fraud
• How much needs to be done on journals
• Getting materiality right
• The latest thinking on sample sizes
• Relying upon experts and dealing with service organisations
• Auditing pension scheme obligations
• Quality control systems

Speaker: Mark Ward - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

To explore all tax issues affecting owner-managers and their companies, focussing on the tax planning opportunities that will enable clients to minimise their current and potential tax liabilities without falling foul of the various misguided beliefs and understandings that have grown over the years.

Content

• Structuring ownership from the outset
• Incorporation of an existing business – income tax and CGT considerations, including a very cautionary tale
• Family members as shareholders, one class of share or alphabet shares?
• Why mixed partnerships are a bad idea
• More than one activity, or land and buildings? – Groups v associated companies and mitigating the corporation tax liability
• Extracting profits - salary v dividends v interest
• Taking advantage of the benefits in kind rules (and avoiding the pitfalls!)
• Working from home
• Minimising the impact of s.455 rules on loans to participators
• Anti-avoidance obstacles
• IR35/off-payroll working
• Settlements and dividends
• Closing down the company - liquidation v informal winding up
• Succession planning and sale - CGT/IHT issues for owner managers
• EOTs – the way forwards?
• Purchase of own shares

Speaker: Mark Ward - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

The course will cover areas that practitioners encounter when dealing with clients with residential and commercial property interests.

Content

• Problem areas in the rental computation
• When to claim relief on furnishings
• Corporation tax issues under the new regime
• Structuring ownership of business premises
• Joint tenants or tenants in common?
• Allocating rental profits between property owners
• When to use declarations of trust and Form 17
• Furnished holiday lets
• Private residence relief
• CGT reporting
• Basic VAT issues
• Basic SDLT issues

Speakers: Robert Jamieson - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

This course will review the momentous tax changes announced by the Chancellor in the autumn of 2023. In addition to explaining the effect of the legislation once it has been enacted, the speaker will give his initial planning thoughts on the FA 2024 provisions.

Content

The course will cover business, corporate, personal and capital tax changes

Speaker: Robert Jamieson - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

The aim of this course is to provide a résumé of a range of topical tax planning issues. For example, it used to be said that owner managers should hold cars outside rather than within their companies. However, the electric car revolution – and the tax changes which have been made to keep pace with this – has meant that the opposite is now the norm. In the CGT world, how much investment activity can be permitted in a trading company ? Another commonly encountered matter is where an elderly parent lives with a son or daughter, what sort of interest in the family home can the property owner safely transfer to their offspring?

Content

• Some thoughts on the settlements legislation
• The tax attraction of electric cars
• Close company loans written off – can you avoid an NIC charge?
• Creating distributable reserves through a reduction of share capital
• Goodwill and S165 TCGA 1992 relief
• The meaning of “substantial”
• Losses and the decision in Marren v Ingles (1980)
• A CGT trust uncertainty resolved
• Home sharing arrangements
• Planning for related settlements
• Using income gifts to fund trusts
• Tax-efficient use of the £3,600 pension contribution limit

Speaker: Peter Herbert - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

In what continues to be a challenging environment for many charities and their advisers, this course will provide a practical insight into current hot topics in financial reporting, independent examination and audit for charities.

Content

• Latest developments in the Charities SORP, FRS 102 and the financial statements
• Considerations for the Trustees’ Annual Report
• Challenging accounting areas for charities – income recognition, funds analysis and more
• Common problem disclosure areas
• Practical impact of the Charities Act 2022
• Important considerations for charity auditors
• Latest guidance from the Charity Commission

Speaker: Dean Wootten - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

The course will cover recent case law and HMRC announcements affecting practitioners and their clients.

Content

• Outputs
• Land and property
• International supplies
• Inputs
• Administration and penalties

Speaker: Chris Thorpe - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

This course will consider a wide range of topical issues affecting the farming industry. It will focus on the more practical side of the farming business and the taxation issues involved. Any general updates in the industry will be reviewed.

Content

This course will consider a wide range of topical issues affecting the farming industry. It will focus on the more practical side of the farming business and the taxation issues involved. Any general updates in the industry will be reviewed.

• Partnerships as a trading platform including losses
• Incorporation issues
• Option agreements
• CGT, chattels
• Capital allowances – problem areas and recent cases
• Any news updates

Speaker: Rebecca Benneyworth - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

This session will highlight tax developments in the last 18 months which have a practical impact on your clients and the advice you give. It will focus on areas of advice most relevant to the smaller practice dealing with a wide variety of clients.

Content

• Business income tax and corporation tax
• Personal income tax
• Capital taxes
• VAT
• Tax administration measures

Speaker: Rebecca Benneyworth - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

This course will take delegates through all of the tax planning issues associated with starting, running and closing a small business, highlighting key areas for advice as the business progresses.

Content

• Starting in business
• Establishing the start date and notifying HMRC
• New requirements to notify
• Record-keeping recommendations
• Business motoring – what are the options?
• Business use of home – the alternatives
• Accounting date and making life easy
• Growing the business
• Paying members of the family – what works and what doesn’t
• VAT considerations - watching the turnover limits, voluntary registration, practical issues, flat rate scheme
• Partnerships
• Hiccups along the way
• Impact of divorce
• Buying business premises
• Transitional amount taxation
• Incorporation – or not?
• Planning for incorporation – will it be beneficial?
• Shareholding structures for the future
• Salary v dividend in 2024
• Selling the business/assets/company
• Dissolving the company

Speaker: Dave Broadbent - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

Running a business is never smooth sailing, especially navigating post pandemic changes and a cost-of-living crisis which may have impacted trading patterns and income streams.
The focus will be on how directors and business owners can approach these issues in a way that doesn’t necessarily mean closing the doors. Potential options to either rescue or exit the business and avoid liquidation will be considered.

Content

• How did COVID (and the subsequent lockdowns) affect employees and sole-trader businesses
• Three years on, how are small businesses now dealing with the repayments
• What is the attitude of the Government to businesses that are unable to repay Bounce Back Loans
• How are H M Revenue & Customs dealing with businesses that are unable to repay their taxes
• How can an Insolvency Practitioner help, and what are the options available to my client
• Spotting issues (before they happen) and planning for the future
• Real-life worked examples

Speaker: Nicola Draper & Rik Pancholi - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

This course will provide an overview of the factors to consider when selling all or part of an accountancy practice. It will cover aspects from both a broker’s point of view and from a legal perspective. The broker will give up to date market commentary with actual case studies showing how deals can be structured with time scales. The solicitor will cover many legal aspects that will need to be taken into account

Content

Broker considerations

• What does a seller want: Cultural fit, Financial, Operational, and Commercial
• What does a buyer expect: Financial, Operational, and Commercial
• Case studies

Legal considerations

• Getting seller ready and what does this mean?
• Commercial considerations
• Property
• Employment
• Legal Due Diligence & Heads of Terms
• Sale Structure – Asset Sale or Share Sale
• Contracts – Commercial Drafting Points
• Warranties and Disclosure
• Anomalies

Speakers: John Selwood & Peter Herbert - £200 plus VAT.

Objectives

On completion of the course, participants will:

• Be aware of all Audit and Accounting Standards and Practice Notes issued and relevant changes to Company Law occurring since the last update course
• Understand the practical effect of these changes on their clients and their own firms, and any action that should be taken
• Understand the probable practical impact of any other pronouncements and discussion papers that affect accounting and auditing
• Be aware of the key areas of focus as regards the quality of their work and matters of particular interest to professional bodies

Content

The precise content of the seminar will be determined nearer the date of the course.

Speaker:Kevin Read - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

The course will deal with corporation tax updates and issues affecting directors of small companies

Content

• Reminder of tax rates and thresholds, including
• Close Investment holding companies
• Non-resident companies
• Associated companies
• Definition and impact
• Imputation of holdings of associated persons
• Dormant companies and passive holding companies
• Group structures and related rules
• Group relief for losses
• Capital gains
• Intangible assets
• Corporation tax loss relief
• The importance of the 2017 changes
• The options available for individual and group companies
• Problems when buying a loss-making company
• Loan relationships
• General principles
• Loans between connected parties
• The unallowable purposes test and its impact
• Using capital reductions to generate distributable profits
• Inheritance Tax issues
• Transfer by a close company
• Deemed disposition on the alteration in the capital or share rights
• Recent cases and 2024 budget issues

Speaker: Kevin Read - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

The course aims to examine the detailed rules involved in providing for and accessing a pension, taking into account the tax impact of alternative courses of action. Planning issues will be incorporated as appropriate.

Content

• Annual allowance
• Measuring pension inputs in defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) schemes
• Restriction on AA for high earners
• AA charge for excess pension inputs
• Carrying forward unused allowance
• Electing for the scheme to pay the AA tax charge
• Lifetime allowance
• Effect of having claimed any of the various protections when LA has been cut
• The LA charge when the LA is exceeded
• Abolition of the LA charge for 2023/24 and what happens if it gets reinstated
• The options when accessing pension rights from DC schemes
• Flexi-access drawdown fund (FADF)
• Unsecured funds pension lump sum (UFPLS)
• Taxation of pension funds at death
• The rules for accessing ‘small’ pension pots
• Self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs)
• Salary sacrifice arrangements for pension contributions
• Auto enrolment – overview and key risk areas
• Any changes announced in the March 2024 Budget

Speaker: Chris Thorpe - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

This course will consider a wide range of issues (tax and non-tax) which the older generation has to consider when looking to pass down the business and home to the younger generation. Inheritance tax (IHT) and Capital Gains Tax (CGT) will be considered, as well the means by which the family silver can be safely passed down the generations

Content

• IHT – tax on death and failed lifetime gifts
• APR/BPR and the traps to watch out for
• CGT
• Use of trusts
• Implied trusts and proprietary estoppel – the danger of making promises!
• The main home
• Wills and deeds of variation
• Use of pensions

Speaker:Dean Wootten - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

The course will cover VAT areas that practitioners may encounter when dealing with owner managed clients.

Content

• Registration issues
• Common output tax liability errors
• Input tax recovery on directors, staff, and freelancers costs
• Business entertainment and subsistence issues
• Business gifts – when we can and cannot recover VAT
• Impact of private use
• Cars
• Partial exemption
• Invoicing issues – sales and purchases
• Dealing with international transactions correctly
• Small business schemes
• Reporting issues
• Disclosing errors
• Minimising VAT penalties

Speaker: Peter Herbert - £100 plus VAT.

Objectives

Most practitioners act for clients that have some accounting issues relating to property. This session will look in depth at all the relevant issues and consider solutions in the event that either FRS 102 or FRS 105 is being applied.

Content

• Accounting implications of raising finance for property transactions
• Classifying properties in financial statements
• Investment property accounting – frequently asked questions
• When should property developers recognize revenue?
• Construction contract accounting – key tips and traps
• FRS 102 v FRS 105 – key similarities and differences