Letters.

Letters.

HSE accounts not qualified.[QQ] Your front page report on 22 June – NAO qualifies over half of Whitehall accounts – was misleading about the Health and Safety Executive. HSE has been producing audited commercial accounts for 25 years without qualification. The NAO has given a ‘nil opinion’ in this case simply because there is an outstanding technical issue about whether the HSE’s accounts should be consolidated with those of DETR; not because our accounts ‘were not substantial enough’. I trust you will publish this correction. Steve Dennis, Head of Finance HSE, Merseyside Revenue is so arrogant The Inland Revenue has published an example of a deemed salary calculation under IR35 on its website. In this example Mr and Mrs A have a personal service company with a total income of #100 000, of which #60,000 is caught by IR35 and #40,000 is not. Among the company’s costs are ‘other expenses’ of #10,000. These are, by the Inland Revenue’s calculation, properly incurred in the furtherance of the trade and wholly allowable. It does not take much to figure out that if all the company’s income had been caught by IR35 then the actual business expenses incurred would exceed the flat rate allowance of five per cent. From there (if one assumes the deemed salary must physically be paid within nine months of the company’s year end in order to get the deduction in the accounts) the company must be making a loss. If this continues on an annual basis then we must have, at some point, an insolvent company and indeed nationwide a number of insolvent companies. Who does not get paid ultimately? I do not believe the suggested scenario of all income being caught by IR35 is so hard to envisage. Nor do I believe the possibility of actual business expenses incurred exceeding the five per cent allowance is out of the question, particularly given the IT industries repeated points about, in order to remain experts in their field they will incur training costs. What I do find staggering is that the Revenue would be arrogant enough to publish an example where the actual business expenses exceed the flat rate allowance, given that my above points are not new to them. To my mind what they seem to be saying is stuff the potential difficulties, it is not our problem, as long as we get what we want out of it. Who made this decision? As a young and perhaps inexperienced accountant I am continually astounded and to some extent embarrassed, by the Revenue’s cavalier attitude towards the taxpaying public Please, if I am missing something, tell me. Name and address supplied Local government is the last bastion of CIPFA Quentin Langley states that the fast-track route to the CIPFA qualification focuses on the parts of the qualification that make it unique such as the emphasis on strategic management skills and public sector ethics. I would disagree with this. The one element of the CIPFA qualification which does make it unique is the project.This is missing from the fast-track qualification. The NHS now has more trainee accountants studying through CIMA than CIPFA. Other public bodies such as the National Audit Office has English ICA students through the TOPP scheme and the civil service trains many accountants through CIMA and the ACCA. Privatised industries see no relevance in CIPFA and have chosen other institutes to train their finance staff. It seems that local government is the last bastion of CIPFA. Tom Gorman, ACCA All letters should be sent to: The Editor, Accountancy Age, VNU House, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG Tel: 0171 316 9236 Fax: 0171 316 9250 Or e-mail us on: [email protected] Accountancy Age reserves the right to edit letters for space or clarity. Please include your title, company name and a daytime telephone number. ?:

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