{"id":4042,"date":"2021-04-07T12:26:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T12:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4042"},"modified":"2021-04-07T12:26:21","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T12:26:21","slug":"new-call-for-professional-accountancy-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/new-call-for-professional-accountancy-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"New call for professional accountancy standards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Calls have been renewed for the Government to make membership of a recognised professional body mandatory for anyone offering paid-for tax accountancy services.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As the new tax year begins,\u00a0new research published this week has highlighted that many people are unaware that formal qualifications are not required for anyone offering paid-for tax advice, leading to a renewed call for\u00a0the\u00a0government action.<\/p>\n<p>The survey, by the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) revealed that of over 1,000 people who had used an accountant or tax adviser, working for either them or their business, found that almost six out of ten people (59 per cent) were unaware that anyone can trade as an accountant or tax adviser without any professional or formal qualifications.<\/p>\n<p>However, almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of those surveyed also said that accountants and tax advisers should have formal qualifications.<\/p>\n<p>Other findings from the research included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sixty four per cent of people thought accountants and tax advisers have played an essential role advising on the latest\u00a0financial issues in relation to the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and\u00a0Brexit.<\/li>\n<li>Fifty seven per cent said it should be compulsory for anyone offering paid-for tax or accountancy services to be a member of a recognised professional\u00a0body.<\/li>\n<li>Fifty nine per cent said accountants and tax advisers should undertake continuing\u00a0professional development (CPD) to ensure their technical skills and industry knowledge are up to\u00a0date.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Adam Harper, director of professional standards &amp; policy, AAT, said:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s good to see that most people recognise the importance of having a good accountant, particularly during these challenging\u00a0times for many individuals and small businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, as this survey shows, the fact that so few people are unaware\u00a0that\u00a0unregulated accountants\u00a0are able to\u00a0practice\u00a0increases the risk of non-compliance\u00a0with tax obligations and leaves\u00a0consumers\u00a0potentially\u00a0open\u00a0to\u00a0financial\u00a0risks\u00a0if they use\u00a0an unregulated adviser.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnregulated accountants make up a third of the\u00a0accountancy\u00a0sector,\u00a0yet\u00a0two-thirds of agent-related complaints to HMRC are about unregulated advisers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMandatory membership of a recognised professional body for anyone providing paid-for tax and accountancy services would address this by providing reassurance to clients that they will have protection if anything goes wrong and that their accountant\u2019s technical\u00a0knowledge is up to date.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we enter a critical\u00a0stage of the UK\u2019s economic recovery, we are calling on the government to introduce this\u00a0to\u00a0boost consumer confidence and the reputation of the accountancy profession.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Calls have been renewed for the Government to make membership of a recognised professional body mandatory for anyone offering paid-for tax accountancy services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,38,24,30,121,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4042"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4043,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4042\/revisions\/4043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}