Accounting profession singles out Brexit as biggest headache
It's time for accountants to "step up to the plate" when it comes to Brexit, according to the ICAEW's head of tax.
Frank Haskew says: "Our profession is facing a generational, monumental change. This is massive for all of us."
He adds (perhaps with a hint of understatement) that clients across the country are "starting to get worried".
And he is urging the accountancy profession to work out ways of engaging meaningfully about what the future holds... especially for the 145,000 VAT-registered UK businesses that trade exclusively with Europe.
A lot of work to do
"There's a lot of work that we need to do," he told more than 100 delegates at the chartered accountant body's Deconstructing Tax conference in London last week.
"We do not know how to come into this [Brexit scenario] and engage."
But Haskew reckons that "we have to assume no deal" and that future trading conditions will be set through collaboration with the World Trade Organization.
Brexit headwinds
ICAEW member education will be at the heart of the profession's ability to negotiate the Brexit headwinds successfully.
Haskew's comments about monumental change refer also to HMRC and its prospects for coping with its own structural changes, making tax digital, plus the customs changes brought about by Brexit.
"HMRC are clearly struggling," he says. He points out that there has been an admission by HMRC chief Jon Thompson and Co that "we can't do all that they [the government] is asking".
Internal reorganisation
The HMRC could administer any one of MTD, Brexit or the internal reorganisation ... to do all three concurrently is impossible. Hence with Brexit, "everything else is put on hold".
Haskew says that the ICAEW tax faculty will be on hand to help accountants deal with the EU uncertainty, initially with the resources available on its website here.
The Deconstructing Tax conference proved to be an interesting and worthwhile day, with interesting sessions from the likes of Rebecca Benneyworth, John Cassidy, Peter Rayney, Lloyds Bank's Donna Dimmack and and SWAT's Sharon Cooke.
I'll be doing a short round-up of the conference on Friday.
