Blogs

This blog was written by Ben Ridley, economics student at Bristol University who completed a week's internship at ICAEW. 

High public debt is a commonality amongst most of the world’s largest economies, with the UK currently burdened with £1,903bn. Confidence in our governments’ ability to finance the public debt is reflected in the yield available on 30 year gilts of just 1.75%. However, a public finance crisis is looming…

With the discussion in politics once again turning to the size of the saving that the UK will make when it stops paying contributions into the EU, this week's chart is a reminder of what we currently pay and what we get back from the EU.

It is certainly worth noting that while the UK is a net contributor to the EU, both the gross contribution of £290m per week and the net contribution of £165m a week - what actually…

This week's 'Chart of the Week' shows two things.

First, that when the government talks about net borrowing, it doesn't actually include everything that gives rise to an increase in the Government's debts.  This is a statistical convention, but we accountants tend to think it is misleading as it under-represents the extent to which the country is living beyond its means.

Two, and more importantly, that…

Here is the latest Chart of the Week from the ICAEW.

This week's chart shows that public debt has tripled over the last decade.

While economic growth has been at historically low levels over the last decade, reducing tax receipts, government borrowing has rocketed in order to keep paying for public services and social welfare. 

With the average life of borrowing now out to 18 years, as long as the government is still…

At the attached link from the Nuffield Trust is one of the most comprehensive and useful analysis I have seen with respect to the sustainability of the NHS finances. 

https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/the-bottom-line-understanding-the-nhs-deficit-and-why-it-won-t-go-away

In summary, it looks like the current funding model is not sustainable given demand from a growing and ageing population.  That doesn't do justice to…

I have now returned to the UK after spending two weeks in Australia and New Zealand. We have over 3,000 members in Australia and over 600 in New Zealand and I had the pleasure of meeting many of them during my visit.

I spent the first part of my trip in Auckland and Christchurch. I met with Peter Vial, New Zealand Country Head at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ), to discuss tax digitalisation and…

The importance of culture in supporting organisational performance and sustainability has long been recognised. However, over the past few years it has increasingly moved up the board’s agenda. In part this has been driven by continuing efforts to deal with the fallout from the financial crisis and corporate scandals. In July 2016 the FRC published its report Corporate Culture and the Role of Boards arguing that…

In this article I am going to consider the impact of automation on not just how we work and what work we do, but on the revenues that government receives from taxing work and the profits from it.  Please note that the opinions represented in this article are those of the author and, unless directly cited, not of any other party.

Technology and automation are of course nothing new in the workplace. One of the backdrops to…

In recent weeks, the Financial Reporting Faculty has received a number of queries regarding the filing requirements for an audited micro-entity, specifically in relation to the audit report.

In this blog I look at the most common question received, which is whether or not a micro-entity should include its audit report with the financial statements filed at Companies House.

To file or not to file

The answer to this question…

Discount rates used in the public sector (and private sector?) reporting have been a cause of  confusion for a while now. Year on year, discount rates have been falling, resulting in current negative rates as follows:

Short term: -2.70%
Medium term: -1.95%
Long term: -0.8%

The UK Treasury has now begun a project to review its methodology and the relevant accounting standards to answer two fundamental questions: are the discount…

When discussing the National Debt economists and other commentators routinely express it as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  We are all used to this approach, but I am really starting to wonder about it.

Other than in command economies, governments do not control or have access to all economic activity for the purposes of servicing its debt.  In fact GDP itself, the measure of the domestic economy, is an approximation…

Some analysis from the ICAEW on the most recent Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) recently published for 2015-16 prepared by Martin Wheatcroft. 

WGA is worth looking at because it is based on actual audited data from the underlying transactions - it takes longer to produce than the Public Sector Finance numbers, but produces a more comprehensive and far more accurate picture of what has actually happened to the taxpayer's money…

Having taken a couple of days off to enjoy the summer after my week in Hong Kong and China, I spent last week focussed on issues around diversity and gender equality. Before I became President, I was the first chair of ICAEW’s Diversity Advisory Group, set up in 2016 to help ICAEW’s efforts to improve access to the profession and to do what we can to improve diversity, from student intake right up to the most senior levels…

This is the first article of a series of trends that will affect the world we live in, do business in and perhaps even the way we live.  Over the next few weeks I plan to cover some important developing trends, including automation, the political environment and how what we report affects our decisions.  This week, I am going to consider the impact of demographics on our public finances.  Please note that the views represented…

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable…

Over recent months we’ve been working on a project to provide some materials for IPs to support them in winning work and getting out the message that directors should seek advice at an early stage. The materials will be formally launched at this year’s autumn roadshows. As part of this project we’re updating the insolvency pages on the website, to create a new approach to the insolvency section.

We need…