MPs' second homes and their DOSH

Following all the pieces I've written about the tax aspects of MPs' expenses on the Tax Buzz blog this item rightly appears here instead.

It's an idea I saw mentioned in a letter to Taxtion magazine from a Mike Holland.

He suggests there should be a further extension of the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes regime. This would require disclosures from MPs who nominate a series or succession of properties as second homes.

Mike suggests that an appropriate title for the legislation would be the Disclosure of Second Homes - DoSH!

Alan Partridge meets the Inland Revenue

It's a random enquiry.
He can't recall whether it's avoidance or evasion that's illegal.
"Cash in hand - is not a phrase we like"
Ignore the bit in the middle with the builder.
"Did you tell the tax people that they won't find your money?"

Why Tony Blackburn uses an accountant

I let my accountant do my tax returns because it saves time...
........sometimes as much as ten years.

Tweeted by @TonyBlackburn on 6 July.

The art of taxation - plucking geese

It was in the 17th century that Jean-Baptiste Colbert (who was French Finance Minister under King Louis XIV of France) originated the suggestion that

"the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing".

I noted recently that John Whiting says:

"It's very important the corollary is that the goose deserves a say in which feathers are taken and how."

Daft names for accounting roles

• Bookkeeper = Ledger Completion Manager
• Payroll clerk = Government Deduction Compliance Assistant
• Financial manager = Future Spend Calculation Manager
• Filing Tax Returns = Statutory Revenue Completion and Filing Contractor
• Office clerk = Photocopy Facilitator
• Tax adviser = Revenue detraction monitor
• Receptionist = Client Hospitality Manager
• Audit manager = Figurative bullshit researcher
• Accountant (in a firm) = Client Service Manager
  

Thanks and credit to Andy Tomlin of AT Accounting who tweeted most of these recently

Any more?

"What's a Kyott? an I - cow, a Fker, an Acker and an Eye-Kas?"

This was a question posed to me by my (then) teenage son a few years back. He was field testing an early version of the Tax Working website. It included a list of the various professional bodies - which were identified only by their initials.

All those involved with the project used the abbreviations all the time. But we'd forgotten that many in our audience would have no idea what the letters stood for. Following the initial feedback we spelled them all out in full.

I was reminded of this recently when I saw that someone at Taxation had asked the Chartered Institute of Taxation why they preferred to be known as "See, Eye, Oh, Tee" rather than "See-ott". The emphatic reply apparently was that "See-ott sounds terrible". Indeed. But better than "Ky-ott" which was how my son had tried to pronounce the letters!

The other words in the title above refer to ICAEW, FCA, ACCA and ICAS. (Looking back I don't recall why FCA was on the list as those are the designatory letters for fellows of the ICAEW).

Postscript: A related story I posted on this blog last year: The same professional surname

Name changes that follow the economic cycle

How many names can you recall for what used to be called the insolvency department of an accountancy firm?

Tradition demands that the department be renamed every few years to highlight the main focus of their work. The name changes seem to follow the economic cycle. Have I missed any out?

• Insolvency
  
• Business recovery
• Business restructuring
• Corporate recovery
• Corporate restructuring
• Recovery, Reorganisations and Renewals
• Restructuring and Insolvency

Renaming .a department is generally relatively straightforward. However, the specialist organisations tend to get stuck with their original names (so far as I can tell):

R3 (apparently a ref to: Recovery, Reorganisations and Renewals) currently focuses on the insolvency and business recovery profession and is described as the Association of Business Recovery professionals.

INSOL (Suggesting an intial focus on Insolvency) is the International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Professionals.

Further suggestions, observations welcome.