Future pathways to finance leadership

This report looks at how the future role of the CFO is expected to evolve, and the career experiences likely to be of most benefit to next generation CFOs.

Finance leaders survey report: June 2013

ACCA and IMA, June 2013. This is the second of a series of surveys that ACCA and IMA conduct every six months to track finance leaders' views on key issues.

Improving natural capital reporting and finding the tools to help

This paper highlights some of the ways companies can report on their natural capital impacts and dependencies.

Transparency and trust

Comments from ACCA to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), September 2013

Employee ownership and employee shareholder status

Details of employee ownership and employee shareholder status

Inheritance tax - Scotland

HMRC has produced a suite of forms for dealing with inheritance tax on Scottish estates

Tariff Trade Agreement - Central America

[18/09/2013] Reciprocal Preferential Trade Agreement between EU and Central America came into force on 1 August 2013.

US tax residents

[18/09/2013] HMRC has issued an update on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

Inheritance tax – gift schemes

[16/09/2013] Discounted gift schemes can exist where a gift or gifts are made by an individual whose estate is likely to face an IHT charge and where the gift or gifts are structured to ensure that the value of the gift is less than the value of the assets being removed from the individual’s estate. The most common schemes are insurance product based.

UK GAAP: how ACCA can help you prepare

[16/09/2013] ACCA Technical Factsheet 181 explaining the financial reporting and taxation consequences of the change to the new UK GAAP is now available.

Good governance in the public sector – international framework

Comments from ACCA to the International Federation of Accountants, 13 September 2013

Leases

Comments from ACCA to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), 13 September 2013

Disincorporation relief

[12/09/2013] Disincorporation Relief is available to small businesses looking to convert from being a corporation subject to the regulations of the Companies Acts to the flexibility of being unincorporated.

Applying capital gains tax in divorce cases

[12/09/2013] Divorce often results in the transfer of assets between spouses. Understand how and when CGT applies.

Knowledgeable about IFRS for SMEs?

[11/09/2013] Why ACCA’s CertIFRS for SMEs could benefit your business.

Regulatory deferral accounts

Comments from ACCA to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), 4 September 2013

Understanding investors: the road to real-time reporting

ACCA, September 2013. This report is the third of a four-part project examining what investors want from corporate reporting and how organisations are responding to their needs. It explores trends in the speed of internal and external financial reporting, and assesses the pros and cons of a move towards real-time, or ‘near-to-real-time’, reporting to investors and other stakeholders.

Benefits in kind

A detailed look at income, in the context of employment.

International standard for public benefit entities

Details of CCAB research into the need for not-for-profit organisations.

Charity SORP (New SORP consultation)

The Charity Commission and Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), the joint SORP making body, have issued an Exposure Draft SORP for comment.

Gift aid

HMRC has published detailed guidance on The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS)

Housing associations - practice note 14

Proposed Practice Note 14 (Revised) on the audit of housing associations in the United Kingdom

Audit tendering

FRC has issued PN067: Audit Tenders: Notes on best practice.

Tax avoidance schemes

HMRC, as part of its 'Spotlights' updates, has issued warnings on two types of tax scheme.

VAT update: August 2013

A number of VAT consultations were announced in the Budget 2013.

Withholding tax rates

Maximum rates of tax those countries with a Double Taxation Agreement with the UK can charge a UK resident on payments of dividends, interest, royalties and management/technical fees.

Conceptual framework for general purpose financial reporting by public sector entities: presentation in general purpose financial reports

Comments from ACCA to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board, 13 August 2013

Housing SORP 2014

The National Housing Federation has published an invitation to comment on the Housing SORP - Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP): Accounting by registered social housing providers.

SMEs, financial reporting and trade credit: an international study

ACCA research report 133, by J. Collis and R. Jarvis.

The UK General Anti-Abuse Rule

Chas Roy-Chowdhury, August 2013. This article considers tax avoidance and the possible effects of the UK General Anti-Abuse Rule (GAAR), which came into effect in July 2013.

Material concerns

While the widening scope of corporate reporting and assurance is making the concept of materiality more important, it is also becoming more complex.

SMEs and foreign exchange risk: are small and medium-sized accountancy practices up to speed?

This report explores the role of accountancy practitioners in managing the foreign exchange exposures of SME clients, and what the accountancy profession could do to improve its offering to small businesses.

HMRC enquiries – re-opening earlier years

Tribunal case reveals that HMRC’s method of calculating income for earlier years on the basis of spreading is open to challenge where a more reasonable and accurate method is appropriate

Remittance basis 2011-12: HMRC exercise

HMRC announce an "educational exercise" aimed at taxpayers taxed on the remittance basis due to a perceived lack of understanding of what constitutes a remittance.

Cash accounting - the pros and cons

Arguments in favour of and against the cash accounting regime for small businesses, which is optional for small unincorporated businesses from 6 April 2013.

Defined benefit plans: employee contributions, proposed amendments to IAS 19

Comments from ACCA to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), 25 July 2013

The draft framework for integrated reporting

Comments from ACCA to the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), July 2013

NHS clinical commissioning group’s draft code of governance

Comments from ACCA to The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, 24 July 2013

Tapping into SME international potential

ACCA, July 2013. This paper presents a number of recommendations for increasing SME presence in international trade. Aimed at policy makers and broader business support stakeholders, the paper identifies critical success factors that hinder cross-border trade for SMEs, as well as areas in need of further development that remain under-exploited by policy makers and business owners alike.

iForm problems and P11D, P11D(b), and P9D

We have been informed by HMRC that it will accept that there are problems with the iForm (P11D, P11D(b), and P9D which are all part of the same i-form release) and these will be treated as ‘reasonable excuse’ if reliance on the iForm results in delays in filing.

IASB: Financial instruments: expected credit losses

Comments from ACCA to the International Accounting Standards Board

How can the NHS payment system do more for patients?

Comments from ACCA to Monitor, July 2013.

VAT: single or multiple supplies

Subjective judgement required to apply the basic principles and guidance, as a recent tax case illustrates.

Loan relationships - common problems demystified

Understand the basics of the loan relationships legislation and some of the more common real-life scenarios that crop up.

Annual tax on high-value enveloped dwelling properties

Prepare clients with high-value properties for returns due in October.

Developing global standards for the reporting and assurance of company alignment with the UN guiding principles on business and human rights

Comments from ACCA to Mazars and Shift.

IPSASB: Financial statement discussion and analysis (Exposure Draft 47)

Comments from ACCA to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board, IFAC, July 2012

Loans to directors, trusts and LLPs

Anti-avoidance legislation aimed at loans to directors to be extended.

Global economic conditions survey report: Q2, 2013

The global economic conditions survey, carried out jointly by ACCA and IMA since late 2011, is the largest regular economic survey of accountants in the world, both in terms of the number of respondents and the scope of economic variables it monitors.

Paragraph 47: international perspectives one year on

This paper captures stakeholder and national perspectives on paragraph 47 (the reporting outcomes of Rio+20), based on a series of roundtables involving experts from various locations round the world.