Bob Humphreys recently left practice accountancy and made the move into the charity sector and says that HMRC don’t think when applying criteria to charities.
Upon leaving his practice firm PwC he described his time as “fantastic” but also felt that it was all “relatively one dimensional” as he was never the one on the spot making decisions. For his last four years at PwC’s he headed up the charity portfolio, representing the likes of Cancer Research and The British Heart Foundation which he says showed him how is work could benefit others.
Aside from the visits to Africa and helping out within Oxfam’s huge remit he also says he has realised how hard charities get hit by the government saying:
“HMRC appears to try its best to make things more difficult for charities. It introduced a reverse charging regime, which increased the cost of irrecoverable VAT for many charities.”
Charities were also one of the first companies hit when HMRC changed their legislation regarding format of which accounts can be submitted. What was once Excel or other spreadsheet software has now been changed to XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Software) a type of computer tagging language which allows all claims to be submitted online, another change that is due to occur from April 2011.
When asked about this Mr Humphreys said:
“We just cannot for the life of us see any benefit for the charities sector and it’s going to result in an additional cost to have our accounts put into XBRL format.”
Adding that he would just like HMRC to consider the impact changes have on charities or consult with charities to see what their views would be.
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(Source – Accountancy Age)