Comments on: Does the ICAEW understand reporting? http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/05/31/does-the-icaew-understand-reporting/ Richard Murphy on tax and corporate accountability Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:59:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Tax Research LLP http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/05/31/does-the-icaew-understand-reporting/#comment-79018 Tax Research LLP Sun, 03 Jun 2007 05:57:47 +0000 http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/05/31/does-the-icaew-understand-reporting/#comment-79018 Gareth Agreed, 100% Richard Gareth

Agreed, 100%

Richard

]]> By: Gareth http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/05/31/does-the-icaew-understand-reporting/#comment-75994 Gareth Thu, 31 May 2007 10:23:49 +0000 http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/05/31/does-the-icaew-understand-reporting/#comment-75994 The accountancy profession does sometimes seem to be obsessed with secrecy. For another example, see here: http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=168371 - if you actually read HMRC's paper, all they're proposing is giving Direct Tax inspectors the same powers that VAT staff have always had to enter and inspect business premises (and indeed, in some ways they're recommending restricting the use of existing powers). To read the article you'd have thought that HMRC heavies are getting ready to batter down the door of innocent accountants and brutalise their clients. This might come as a surprise to those working on the VAT side of things, who haven't exactly seen many doors kicked down in the last thirty years or so. The public are quite clear, in numerous surveys and reports, that they want a tax system that is fairly and rigourously enforced. By being so defensive, whether about the information that they have to publish, or the access that they have to give to public officials, all the accountancy organisations are doing is making it look like they, their members and their clients have something to hide. That can't be good for public perception of accountants or their clients. The accountancy profession does sometimes seem to be obsessed with secrecy. For another example, see here: http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=168371 - if you actually read HMRC’s paper, all they’re proposing is giving Direct Tax inspectors the same powers that VAT staff have always had to enter and inspect business premises (and indeed, in some ways they’re recommending restricting the use of existing powers). To read the article you’d have thought that HMRC heavies are getting ready to batter down the door of innocent accountants and brutalise their clients. This might come as a surprise to those working on the VAT side of things, who haven’t exactly seen many doors kicked down in the last thirty years or so.

The public are quite clear, in numerous surveys and reports, that they want a tax system that is fairly and rigourously enforced. By being so defensive, whether about the information that they have to publish, or the access that they have to give to public officials, all the accountancy organisations are doing is making it look like they, their members and their clients have something to hide. That can’t be good for public perception of accountants or their clients.

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