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Do you treat clients like lab rats?

Probably the most sensible thing any adviser can do is to recognize their limitations. Most accountants are like GPs. Great at dealing with day to day issues. Every now and then though when you visit the doctor they recommend you see a specialist. Indeed you’d be very worried if the GP suggested you hop up on the bed so that he can remove your kidney, operate on your back, undertake a brain scan or whatever. In the same way there is no shame in admitting to clients that occasionally you have to involve other specialists to [...]

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Expect more clients to seek advice on Tax Credits

This was the message to accountants in a press release issued last week by the Tax Advice Network. In it I warned that: Accountants across the UK are likely to see a surge in requests for Tax Credit advice from couples considering getting married following the release of a controversial report highlighting the failings on the current Tax Credit System for married couples. This followed on from The ‘Individualists Who Co-operate’ report issued last week by Civitas. In fact I have been suggesting for some time that More and more accountants will find [...]

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80% of corporate insolvencies are caused by poor financial management

I’m told that this is the view of a senior Insolvency practitioner. What does that say about the advice being provided by accountants? Are they just missing out on opportunities or are they failing their clients? I’d like to hope that this doesn’t apply to any of the regular readers of this blog (if there are any!) In a recent posting on this blog I suggested that: Accountants need to show they really are business advisers as we [...]

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If in doubt – imagine you're advising a loved one

One of the pressures that all ambitious accountants endure is the need to advise on issues that do not arise every day. The more experience you have the more confidence you gain to know whether or not you have enough knowledge to give the advice without double checking it’s right. Double checking might simply involve checking the rules in a book on the shelf, online, asking a colleague or going outside the firm to an independent specialist. There is no shame in not knowing. You cannot know everything and it’s a mistake these days (and probably [...]

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Does the impending recession provide more or fewer opportunities for accountants?.

As the preparation continues for a new seminar I’m presenting next month I started to think about the specific tax advice that might be relevant as the economy moves toward a recession. Let me stress that I’m referring here to the technical definition (two consecutive quarters of negative growth). From a personal perspective I see more rather fewer business opportunities. What about you? Have you considered, for example the range of generic tax saving ideas that you could mention to clients? Remember they won’t know you’re thinking about ways to save tax if you [...]

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Tax Return completion – tips and advice

Where does the time go? It’s almost exactly two years since I recorded my first webcasts. They are still viewable from the ICAEW Tax Faculty website. 1. Collating clients’ Tax Return information 2. Billing the Tax Return work [the ICAEW link for this webcast doesn't seem to be working at the moment] 3. Quoting for tax compliance work They each contain around around 5 minutes of tips and advice and were intended to help accountants to avoid disappointing and losing their clients. I recall suggesting that it might [...]

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How far do you go?

This was another of the thoughts I had during the workshop that followed the E-business for accountants seminar that I attended last week. (I’ve already commented on the seminar here and here). One of the workshop leaders was suggesting that accountants should be more prepared to ‘upskill’ their clients as regards their e-business strategy. I asked whether he meant: To be better able to talk to clients knowledgeably about e-business related subjects and to be able to introduce specialists to help the client with their issues; or To be able [...]

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Balancing the rights of taxpayers with HMRCs powers

I was delighted to be able to attend the ICAEW Tax Faculty’s annual Wyman debate last week. The motion under debate was: This House believes that the balance between the rights of the citizen and the powers of the taxing authority has tilted too far towards HMRC Speakers for the motion were Francesca Lagerberg and Keith Gordon. Against were Simon Norris and Mark Neale. You can read a summary report of the event here. There were two elements of the debate that struck me as worthy of mentioning on this blog: 1 – One [...]

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Professional Fee protection policies

These have evolved a great deal over the last few years, both to reflect the changing approach of HMRC and also the feedback from accountants and their clients. I must admit that I’m torn. If I were still in practice I’m sure I’d want to ensure that my clients had this sort of cover. Equally I’m aware that most of the insurers provide a tax helpline and can (or, in some cases, insist that the insurers) undertake the related professional work to defend a client from an HMRC challenge. And such helplines and tax support services [...]

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Is the campaign to protect the term 'accountant' going to backfire?

Although qualified accountants are aware that anyone can call themselves an ‘accountant’ I find that very few ‘real’ people appreciate this fact. They tend to assume accountants are like dentists, doctors and solicitors. If only that were the case! It is precisely because of this confusion that various groups of accountants campaign to secure protection of the description ‘accountant’. I will not repeat here the arguments in favour of change or those put forward in defence of the status quo. What concerns me is that the proponents may not have thought through the consequences that would [...]

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Mark Lee – in brief

Mark Lee FCA CTA (Fellow) is Chairman of the Tax Advice Network, Head of the Tax Director Network and a past Chairman of the ICAEW’s Tax Faculty.
You can contact Mark on 0845 003 8780 or by email
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Welcome
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Mark Lee – in brief

SOCIAL MEDIA without hype

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