John’s Spring/Summer Blog 2018

I am afraid this Newsletter is somewhat late. It could either be the spring Newsletter late or the summer one very early, so let’s have the latter and trust that the lovely weather we enjoyed a few weeks ago will return. We continue to live in difficult economic times with a lot of uncertainty which hinders any expansion of businesses and leaves some clients struggling particularly those who deal with overseas customers. We live in a world of so much change not only IT but culture and expectations. 

I find Psalm 121 very helpful. ‘I look to the hills – whence doeth my help come from? It cometh from the Lord the Maker of Heaven and earth.

We have been blessed with a substantial number of new clients over recent months all of which need servicing. I still have a dream that I will be able to ease down a bit but that still seems somewhat on the horizon, although I can assure my readers that John will not go away and will continue to lead and maintain the ethos of the firm.

We are very unique in the accountancy world, a small firm that is prospering and surviving. We are known as specialists in the not for profit sector (Charities, Churches, the Christian world) although we also do have a large number of small and medium-size enterprises.

I am pleased to say that we have had a lot of success with examinations. Tina is now a fully qualified member of the Association of Accounting Technicians, as is Michael. Jacob is taking his final auditing exam with the ACCA and will be a fully-fledged Chartered Certified accountant by late summer we trust. Andrew has got through the early stages of his exams and is now switching to training to become a chartered accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

A newish member of staff, Jo Nickson is proving to be a great asset to our firm. She is a fully qualified ACCA and brings particular care and attention to all her work in dealing with small business accounts and taxation. Colin who joined us some almost 18 months ago, is now about to become a director of the firm and will assist me and Vanessa in the development of Caladine’s.

The major area of work in recent months is GDPR, General Data Protection Regulations, and even with this Blog I have to ask you to opt in to receive future publications. If you need any help in developing your own data protection policy, privacy notice, then do contact us for help in this somewhat complex but necessary area. They keep telling us that they are going to reduce red tape but I am afraid it is something we shall never be able to escape from.

Making tax digital has in some ways been put on the back-burner by the government and the idea of a paperless Tax Return seems to have been shelved for the time being. As I read they are concentrating all their resources on the Brexit issues. However, the first phase of making tax digital will come into effect in April 2019 when all VAT Returns will have to be filed digitally using the appropriate software. Colin will be contacting all our clients in the coming weeks, advising on this matter of what needs to be done.

One technical area to raise with clients is the married allowance which although it only gives a small amount of tax relief, is available if one spouse/partner does not utilise all their personal allowances. Obviously if we do the Tax Returns of both spouse/partners then we pick this up. But if we are only acting for one of you then this is something which could be missed quite easily if one of you is not fully utilising all your personal allowances. Do contact us if you feel that you are entitled to this relief.

We will as usual be exhibiting at the Christian Resources Exhibition at Sandown in October and will be pleased to see clients during the course of that Exhibition. We will be sending you more details of this in due course. There are exciting times ahead for us and I will hopefully share more of this in our next newsletter. Otherwise, I wish you a good summer and good holidays.

John
CALADINE/MP/91192
16 May 2018