Category: tax

You Have Just Passed Your ACCA Exams in Dublin, What's Next?

Congratulations on passing your exams! However, sitting the ACCA exams in Dublin is not enough to qualify you as a member of ACCA. To become a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, you must first complete a number of tasks.

The Professional Ethics Module

This ethics module is a requirement for all prospective ACCA members. Here you will learn how to correctly conduct yourself as a professional accountant and you are encouraged to enhance your ethical development also. The course is broken into 9 sections, all of which you complete in your own time. The module is not assed however it is marked n a complete/incomplete basis. While it is not assessed it is a crucial part of developing into a respected professional in the industry.

Work experience

Each candidate is required to have logged 36 months of relevant work experience to qualify as an ACCA member. Working in the accounting or finance field, you will be able to gain the necessary practical experience. This is designed to make sure you get relevant experience to enhance your professional development. You will be required to find a workplace mentor who will monitor your performance.

13 Performance Objectives

Upon completion of your work experience you will be required to complete a report detailing your experience. You will have to answer 13 questions surrounding your placement. Your mentor will then have to review your report and sign off on your work.

Logging Your Work

The ACCA website allows you to register with them. Here, you can apply to become a member and log your work experience hours. You will be able to view a progress report and will even get notifications if you have been inactive on the website for more than 90 days. You can use the tool to view how close you are to being a qualified candidate to become an official ACCA member.

So students, sitting your ACCA exams in Dublin are not enough to grant you membership. There are a number of further steps you must take however, upon completing the steps; you are on the right tract to becoming part of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Don’t be Scammed by Fake IRS Communications

The Internal Revenue Service receives thousands of reports each year from taxpayers who receive suspicious emails, phone calls, faxes or notices claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service. Many of these scams fraudulently use the Internal Revenue Service name or logo as a lure to make the communication more authentic and enticing. The goal of these scams – known as phishing – is to trick you into revealing personal and financial information. The scammers can then use that information – like your Social Security number, bank account or credit card numbers – to commit identity theft or steal your money.

Here are five things the IRS wants you to know about phishing scams:

The IRS doesn’t ask for detailed personal and financial information like PIN numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for credit card, bank or other financial Internal Revenue Service does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail and won’t send a message about your tax account. If you receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be the IRS or directing you to an IRS site:

If you receive a phone call, fax or letter in the mail from an individual claiming to be from the IRS but you suspect they are not an IRS employee, contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 to determine if the IRS has a legitimate need to contact you. Report any bogus can help shut down these schemes and prevent others from being victimized. Details on how to report specific types of scams and what to do if you’ve been victimized are available at , keyword “phishing.”

Successful Marketing The Way Forward For Mid-level Accounting And Consulting Firms- Morison Menon

Generally mid level Accounting and consulting firms are averse to marketing or lack the skills or the mindset to market. Firms are normally not outward looking with very limited capabilities on marketing and branding. Firms may have 100 or more existing clients whom they are supporting actively and are quite happy of what they are doing and the Clients are also happy. One of the most challenging barriers to growth for midlevel Accounting and consulting firms is the lack of regular communication to the markets and clients about the firm. It limits the market reach and their expertise and capabilities are not known in the market.

It all boils down to the 5 powerful pointers on how to approach and target the market, how it is structured and budgeted and then the benefits will automatically overflow.

Employee Orientation – The firms need to inculcate the skill and interest among all the employees to communicate to clients about the services and capabilities. Every employee need to act as a spokesperson for the firm.

Visibility and Image – Visibility is required at all appropriate platforms. Along with visibility, the image of the firm projects to the market through their Office interior design, collaterals design and other PR communications.

Knowledge – Creating a knowledge base is as important as visibility. A wide spectrum of knowledge base with regional experience and with regular training and updates tuned to the changing business needs is a must.

Capable resources – Experienced resources with core domain knowledge to back up, what the firm say and project in the market.

Trust – All this will add up to create the trust factor – which is the backbone of any successful Professional Services firm.

Structuring the efforts to the 6 different verticals will add value to the brand

Publications and Collaterals – will boost up the image in the knowledge domain. A News Letter with articles on contemporary happenings in the market will be a value addition.

Academic – Partnering with the academia to compliment their activities like complimentary presentations, training interns, becoming an accredited training center will elevate the image as a responsible firm serving the student community and the younger generation.

Community Partnership – Complimentary services and support for outstanding institutions that serve the cause of humanity will bring in lot of emotional quotient to the brand.

Media Presence – Carefully selected interviews, bytes and comments on major initiatives happening in the country or region, well updated website, Social media presence and dedicated SEO activities will trigger the visibility in a different level.

Government entities – Proactive partnership with all Govt. entities, Diplomatic Missions, Trade Missions for local and international business events. Delivering complimentary Presentations for all visiting business delegations and Trade Missions will value the brand as a must for the business ecosystem.

Events and Networking – Attendance in all networking opportunities in the country is of prime attendance. Contacts need to be tracked and a database created for regular communication. A dedicated database manager can see that the communication reaches the right channels at the right time.

Benefits:

Mid-level firms must be willing to adjust and reposition when the business landscape changes. Positioning is how you differentiate yourself, your brand in the minds of others. Always remember the old saying which is highly relevant as of today – if you deprive yourself of visibility and your competition do not, then you are putting yourself out of business.

About the speaker – Sudhir Kumar is Partner and Head, Corporate Communications of Morison Menon Chartered Accountants Dubai. This talk was delivered by him at the Morison International and Morison International Asia Pacific Conference held at Singapore at Marina Bay Sands Hotel between 7th and 9th October 2011 with more than 250 Morison International Partners, invited Guests and renowned global speakers from 65 countries. The event is part of an annual congregation of members of the fraternity, for primarily focusing on exchange of ideas, knowledge and new marketing and branding initiatives for the next year. Renowned Speakers from the USA and the Govt. of Singapore spoke on varied topics. The third day of the event was started by a Speech and Presentation on the topic ‘Successful Marketing’ by Sudhir Kumar, Partner & Head-Corporate Communications, Morison Menon. He talked on the initiatives, approach, strategies and the way forward for mid level Accounting and Consulting firms to successfully brand and market their services. He equated that to – How Morison Menon in the last 10 years evolved as a 100% coherent brand, 100% valued brand, 100% trusted brand and a 100% community brand.

About Morison Menon:

Morison Menon is a leading Chartered Accountant Company in the Middle East with offices across UAE. The company provides entire gamut of services ranging from assistance in accounting & audit, business consulting, incorporate services, hr consulting and incorporation help in free zones of UAE.

Morison Menon provides professional advisory services for company set up and formations on the industrial areas of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Jebel Ali, JAFZA, DAFZA, Dubai Internet City, SAIF Zone, Sharjah, DIFC [Dubai International Finance Center],RAK Free Zone, RAKIA, Oman and Muscat.

For more details and abstract of the presentation visit:

Tracking Your Income And Expenses Through Bookkeeping

Outsource Bookkeeping Services and get hassle-free accounting solutions

Commencement of a business is a first step in the desire to earn a huge sum of revenue. It also indicates a good amount of investment to run its operations smoothly. And if the owner doesn’t track its expenses as well as their income, then there comes a time wherein the business process can get stalled. Thus, it becomes very important to keep a tab on the flow of money, be it inwards or outwards. Another important factor business owners need to keep in mind is that accounts cannot be handled by anyone without proper knowledge. It is a must to hire someone who has the required knowledge and experience to carry out the bookkeeping services effectively. Hence, they should either have an in-house bookkeeper or outsource the work to a professional bookkeeping Vancouver service provider. The latter option is an ideal one as it allows the business owner to concentrate on other aspects of business priorities.

The advantage of outsourcing bookkeeping services is to acquire qualified and trained accounting staff to conduct complex and voluminous processes. The businessmen can also expect automated bookkeeping records in terms of latest technology. The experts will also ensure that the work will be done in quick-turn-around-time, ensuring cost-savings. Being proficient in an array of bookkeeping softwares, they promise to deliver hassle-free accounting solutions. The services you can expect are –

To Track your Business Income

Irrespective of the size of the business, professional firms are adept to track your business income by various means.

Knowledge – Their knowledge on bookkeeping Vancouver will help them explain the complex and intricate bookkeeping and accounting processes.

Precise Calculation – the skilled personnel can inform the business owners how much they can expect to make from an investment and/or what amount should they take in from the clients before taxes.

High Confidentiality and Security – is assured while maintaining any records. They ensure that the information is not disclosed to any unauthorized person without the concerned person’s consent.

Track Costs of the Company

Direct expenses: Professionals record the wholesale cost of products, commissions paid to sell the products as well as the damages incurred.

Indirect expenses: the professionals will also include the rents, administrative salaries, professionals fees paid to the lawyers and accountant, advertisement and sales promotion, etc. which a company owner might overlook to include.

Professionals can provide with accurate figures with their exclusive bookkeeping Vancouver and accounting services, helping the businessmen to know their quarterly, half-yearly or yearly growth. As money is the primary concern of any business, the businessmen should chose to hire the professionals with good stead.

Decide Suitable Business Structure With Assistance of Contractor Accountants

With the changes in marketing policies and business strategies, people are moving towards the profit-making business development. It could be a very good move to start new own limited company. As a contractor or a freelancer, you will get more financial benefits with many opportunities. People can start new business with a good proposition and commitment. Besides, it is also necessary to optimize your business performance through the useful advice of an expert. Professional will provide right direction on business essentials including cash-flow management, funding, payroll services, book-keeping, project planning, etc. Generally, experts give full support to their clients to maintain efficiency in business.

The planning is an initial step for establishment of new limited company with long-term goals. You have to make proper planning on financial assets, business tactics and new contracts. The expert contractor accountants are working for their clients with the primary objective of successful execution of accounting services. Each new business entity needs extra attention on each new contracts and deals. The working as a freelancer or contractor has become most popular due to availability of several opportunities and financial benefits. People can get following advantages through working as contractors:

-Flexibility in work and time: As a contractor, you will enjoy your work with more flexibility because you are a boss of your own firm. It allows you to execute your work according to your own decision. You are liable to choose right working place and time. Without any pressure, contractors can take holiday according to their requirements. You can choose project on the basis of your working capacity and skills. You can develop new business relationships after complete analysis due to flexibility of time.

-Working facilities with more financial benefits: Freelancers are earning more than full-time employee. Many contractors are working on high rates and getting extra benefits with overtime working facility. With assistance of an expert accountant, you can get opportunities for better tax planning. Expert will try to reduce overall tax burden and claim personal tax return. Expert will always try to earn maximum tax benefits on taxable income and extra earnings.

-Opportunity for career and skill development: If you are working as a contractor, then you can develop career according to your knowledge and field of interest. As well as, you can analyze your working strength and skills. The opportunity to work in each field provides you extra advantages to develop new skills and experience. Indeed, you can work on different projects with different working style and skills.

To get above-mentioned advantages, you have to decide a suitable business structure as a limited company, businessman, sole-trader, partnership, freelancer, etc. Expert will support you with their useful services. For a successful organization, it is necessary to make proper business planning and financial management. Indeed, as a contractor, you need support of a team of experts. Contractor accountants will give new business ideas and solutions for trading forecasts. The establishment of a good working relationship with clients and bank is also an essential factor for successful execution of business assets.

Brief Definition of Managerial Economics Managerial Accounting & Financial Accounting

Economics plays a major role in giving business newer heights and contributes a lot towards the feat of wide range of managerial duties. Economics is required as it meets the expense of several analytical tools and techniques that managers employ to accomplish the goals of that particular organization they are given to manage. Therefore, the branch Managerial Economics enables the managers to gather some operational knowledge of economics and gives an extra edge to managers so that they can fundamentally practice proper managements of accounts and use their knowledge in betterment of the company. Managers equipped with the basic knowledge of economics help in providing successful solution regarding finance and accounts related matters of the organization.

In every organization managers are responsible for achieving the main purpose of the firm to the maximum possible extent and this should be done within the limited resources that are made available to them. Essentially, maximization of the organization’s goal has to be achieved by utilizing limited resources. When the resources are unlimited, the problem of economic utilization of resources or resource management does not seem to occur. Mangers most of the times face the problem of limited resources which include problems of finance, workforce and material. The managers with the help of these resources take the responsibility of optimizing the use of these resources. Economics donate to managerial functions which includes Managerial Accounting. Management accounting is essential for providing information so that managers can take better decisions.

It has been seen that economic theory has put forth a lot of contribution to business economics. According to thinker Baumol, three main contributions of economic theory to business economics are found. Firstly, the practice of building analytical models, that assists in recognizing the structure of Management Economics that help in eliminating minor details. Furthermore, analytical models help in eradicating tangential problems and aid the management in retaining focus on core issues. Secondly, economic theory encompasses a founding pillar of business analysis that helps in solving specific business problems, and also enhances the analytical capabilities of the managers. Lastly, economic theories offer an unambiguous perspective on the various concepts that are used in business analysis, which enables the manager to change direction from conceptual pitfalls.

A firm when decides on the nature of production, what to produce, how to produce and how much to produce and for whom to produce also stresses on the proper utilization of accounts. Financial Accounting, although a little different in character from management accounting is mostly of the same nature. A firm can influence the buying behaviour of customers through advertisements, by allocating more budgets the firm tries to influence the buyers and create demand for the products or services.

Accounting Services Singapore

How Different is Accounting from Bookkeeping Services

Bookkeeping may be the recording of financial transactions. Transactions consist of sales, purchases, income, and payments by an individual or organization. Bookkeeping is generally performed by a bookkeeper. Bookkeeping ought to not be confused with accounting. The accounting process is generally performed by an accountant. The accountant creates reports from the recorded monetary transactions recorded by the bookkeeper and files forms with government agencies. There are some common techniques of bookkeeping such as the Single-entry bookkeeping program and also the Double-entry bookkeeping system. But while these systems may be seen as “real” bookkeeping, any process that involves the recording of monetary transactions is really a bookkeeping procedure.

A bookkeeper (or book-keeper), also recognized as an accounting clerk or accounting technician, is a individual who records the day-to-day financial transactions of an organization. A bookkeeper is generally responsible for writing the “daybooks.” The daybooks consist of purchase, sales, receipts, and payments. The bookkeeper is responsible for ensuring all transactions are recorded within the correct daybook, suppliers ledger, customer ledger, and general ledger. The bookkeeper brings the books towards the trial balance stage. An accountant may prepare the earnings statement and stability sheet using the trial stability and ledgers prepared by the bookkeeper

Bookkeeping systems

Two common bookkeeping techniques utilized by businesses and other organizations are the single-entry bookkeeping system and the double-entry bookkeeping program. Single-entry bookkeeping uses only earnings and expense accounts, recorded primarily in a revenue and expense journal. Single-entry bookkeeping is adequate for numerous small businesses. Double-entry bookkeeping requires posting (recording) each transaction twice, using debits and credits.

Single-entry system

The primary bookkeeping report in single-entry bookkeeping may be the cash guide, that is similar to a checking (chequing) account register but allocates the earnings and expenses to various income and expense accounts. Separate account records are maintained for petty cash, accounts payable and receivable, as well as other relevant transactions for example inventory and travel expenditures. These days, single entry bookkeeping can be done with DIY bookkeeping software to speed up manual calculations.

Double-entry program

Main article: double-entry bookkeeping system

Daybooks

A daybook is a descriptive and chronological (diary-like) record of day-to-day financial transactions also called a guide of original entry. The daybook’s details should be entered formally into journals to enable posting to ledgers. Daybooks include:

  • Product sales daybook, for recording all of the sales invoices.
  • Product sales credits daybook, for recording all the product sales credit notes.
  • Purchases daybook, for recording all the buy invoices.
  • Purchases credits daybook, for recording all the purchase credit notes.
  • Cash daybook, generally known as the money book, for recording all cash received too as cash paid out. It might be split into two daybooks: receipts daybook for money received in, and payments daybook for money paid out.

Petty money guide

A petty money book is a report of little value purchases usually controlled by imprest program. Items for example coffee, tea, birthday cards for employees, a few dollars if you’re short on postage, are listed down in the petty money book.

Journals

A journal is a formal and chronological record of financial transactions before their values are accounted in general ledger as debits and credits. Journals are recorded in the journal daybook, which is one from the books of first entry. For every debit journal there should an equivalent credit journal. There must be at least two journal entries for every transaction recorded.

Ledgers

A ledger is a report of accounts, these accounts are recorded separately showing their beginning/ending stability. Unlike the journal, which lists monetary transactions in chronological order without showing their balance but displaying how much is going to be charged in each account. The ledger takes every monetary transactions from the journal and records them into the right account for every transaction listed. The ledger also sums up the total of every account that is transferred to the balance sheet and earnings statement. There are 3 various kinds of ledgers that deal with book-keeping. Ledgers include:

  • Sales ledger, which deals mostly using the Accounts Receivable account. This ledger consists of the financial transactions made by clients towards the company.
  • Buy ledger is really a ledger that goes hand and hand using the Accounts Payable account. This may be the purchasing transaction a company does.
  • General ledger representing the original 5 primary accounts: assets, liabilities, equity, earnings, and expenses.

Chart of accounts

A chart of accounts is really a list of the accounts codes that could be identified with numeric, alphabetical, or alphanumeric codes allowing the account to be located within the common ledger.

Computerized bookkeeping

Computerized bookkeeping removes many of the paper “books” that are utilized to report transactions and generally enforces double entry bookkeeping.

On the internet bookkeeping

On the internet bookkeeping, or remote bookkeeping, allows source documents and data to reside in web-based applications which allow remote access for bookkeepers and accountants. All entries made to the online software program are recorded and stored in a remote place. The on the internet software program can be accessed from any place in the world and permit the bookkeeper or information entry individual to work from any place with a suitable information communications link.

For more information on accounting services, click here.

Budgeting will Help You in Discovering New Income Streams for Your Business

Since always, the budgeting has been the most important aspect of any business strategy. This tool helps the business owners as well as the CEOs in making sure that they’ve an efficient system in place. Budgeting is also a process of knowing, how much your company or your firm will be generated over the course of the next five to ten years. Besides, the budgeting is also there to help you find out how much income you’ll be needing to produce those kind of results, and thus improving your company’s models over a course of time. However, for a normal person the whole process of budgeting might seem like the amount of income one needs to secure to produce the desirable profits over the next few years. But if this is how you’ll look at budgeting then you’ll just wasting your as well as company’s valuable time plus the resources. These kinds of budgeting processes will give you no profits but in turn will end up hurting your company’s image in a long term. Therefore, one must understand that budgeting is an important tool to stabilize your company for a long-term growth.

Budgeting is usually known as a process that will help you in understanding what are the products and businesses that your company is providing are giving you the maximum profits and becoming a stable input of income. Besides, the budgeting process will also help you in exploring the other services that have a high growth potential over the coming period. It will also help you determine the cost required to run these services or manufacture these products with huge potential.

Budgeting is also the process of finding out how much money you need to spend and what will be your income, the coming year. Moreover, this process will also ensure that you’ve performed well during the last one year, and will also help you in finding the ways to improve if you haven’t done well.

We take an example of a company that has been providing the business training services and what we discovered is that their half of the revenues are coming from the advanced excel training course. Therefore, when they looked at the result, they were shocked, because the main motive of the Advanced excel training course was to provide a bit of publicity for their consultancy services. Therefore, with the help of the budgeting services, they were able to find out about a service they were providing that had the potential to be huge and that will also provide them a stable income. Therefore, they started putting in more resources into it and thus turned that service into a new income stream. Moreover, at the same time they also put aside a particular amount of their income that helped them into launching a new solution service. This helped them in cutting short their budgeting time in half; however, they didn’t take help of the budget planners or else they could have consolidated those numbers at the click of a button.

Therefore, budgeting is actually a profitable method of business management.

tax

Inheritance Tax Planning – How can it Affect Your Family in the Future

Inheritance tax can be fairly complex and the ability to gain an understanding of how it works can help to ensure that you receive everything that you are entitled to. The amount payable can vary from person to person but through effective planning, there are a variety of ways to ensure that the amount which is paid is at a minimal amount.

What is Inheritance Tax

Also known as IHT is payable on all valuables you own when you die. It can be any property or possessions with value such as jewelry, art works, cars and savings. However, there is an inheritance tax threshold, which currently states that the person’s estate must amount to over 325,000 before it will be subjected to inheritance tax.

Who is Liable to Pay IHT

More often than not, the legal personal representative of the person who died will have to. Usually they have six months from the date of death to pay the liability. On the other hand, trustees and any person responsible for the trust, will be liable to pay on trusts (assets including money, land and investments).

However, if it takes more than six months to finalize all the details of the inherited property an estimate can be made and dues can be paid straight away. This means you pay an early payment, so in the future when the exact amount of the property has been settled, you need not to pay the outstanding interest. If it happens that you pay more than the exact amount, then you’ll take advantage of the interest from the overpayment.

Exemption from IHT

There are times when your property is more than the declared threshold but it can still be exempt. This includes the following circumstances:

Given to Partner -no liability if you have left to your spouse or partner who is permanently living in UK.

Charities – any gifts given to charities, universities, clubs, museums and the national trust are all exempted.

Annual Exemption – You can normally give away up to 3,000 per year inheritance tax free. This is known as the annual exemption.

Small Gifts – you can offer small presents to as many people as you want amounting to 250 but should not be with the same person who received the 3000 annual exemption.

Wedding Gifts – parents of both couples can give out gifts up to 5,000, anybody can give up to 1,000, grandparents can share up to 2,500 (all of these civil partnership gifs should be given on or before the day of the wedding).

When receiving gifts or bequests from someone, it is essential to recognize the taxes involved. If you are not familiar on how these legalities, it is recommended that you seek professional assistance to help guide you throughout the process.