Welcome to day two of Daily Insight. Let’s start with this: by any measure, the first Accountex Summit North was an overwhelming success.
More than 1,000 attendees from the world of accounting and finance went to the conference at Manchester Central on Tuesday. And there were plenty of smiling faces. Who says accountants are a grim lot?
The keynote auditorium was packed for engaging presentations by the likes of former BBC business journalist Declan Curry.
The Summit’s smaller theatres hosted sessions on a variety of topics, including an MTD masterclass by taxation expert Andrew Hubbard.
While chartered accountant Elaine Clark ran a couple of popular and well-received discussions on “Woman in Accountancy” and “Surviving as a Sole Practitioner”.
A big thumbs up
Accountex North’s 600 Twitter followers were unanimous, giving the Summit a massive thumbs up. And the word on the floor, from what I heard, was equally positive.
Accounting Insight will return to Accountex Summit North with a full, in-depth on the event on Thursday.
In other news, Rebecca Cave reports on the MTD/VAT sphere. Despite a wide-reaching consultation on the draft MTD for VAT legislation, there appear to be only a couple of amends to the version that was passed without debate in parliament last week.
Two Significant changes to MTD for VAT
Rebecca says: “I have compared the final VAT regulations and the draft version, and found only two significant changes: The VAT records (the electronic account) must be preserved using MTD functional compatible software unless the trade is exempt from the MTD regime. In reg 7: the rules which determine what information must be kept and maintained for each transaction can be varied by HMRC if it is satisfied that the complying with the regulation is likely to be impossible, impractical or unduly onerous.”
Meanwhile, on the subject of Brexit, Philip Hammond, UK chancellor, is calling for financial services to be included in any free trade agreement. He says: “Our markets are already deeply interconnected, and we have demonstrated how we can work together over the past decade as we have repaired and defended the financial stability of our continent.
Mutual Brexit interests
“I am clear not only that it is possible to include financial services within a trade deal but that it is very much in our mutual interest to do so.”
And finally, a shake-up at Yorkshire accountants Revell Ward has resulted in three women taking control of the fiirm.
They are audit director Karen Borowski, tax director Lesley Sutton and business services director Jennifer Davies.
“All-female boards are extremely rare in a male-dominated sector like ours, so we are already way ahead of the national target for plcs. Despite the laughs we’ve had around ‘doing it for the girls’, there are very sound business reasons behind our decision,” said Borowski.