Auto Enrolment

Automatic enrolment is a government programme designed to encourage more individuals to save for retirement. In the UK, auto-enrolment mandates that businesses set up a workplace pension, enrol all of their eligible workers and make a contribution to their employees’ pension funds. In an effort to encourage more people to put retirement aside for their golden years, the federal Government implemented auto-enrolment in 2012. This has resulted in an automatic enrolment for retirement savings for around 10 million people. However, almost six million workers are still without access to any kind of workplace pension. The Government is exploring methods to attract more people into auto-enrolment, including reducing the eligibility age to 18, commencing payments from the first £1 earned and putting the self-employed into auto-enrolment. Individuals above the age of 22 who have a single income of at least £10,000 per year are automatically enrolled.

How do I know an accountant is qualified?

Professional accounting bodies license accountants in the UK and elsewhere. These organizations provide both academic and practical training in accounting. Hire someone who has completed all the required examinations and has an accounting licence, whether for personal or business affairs.

Professional indemnity insurance (PII) is a contractual need for qualified accountants, and it protects both the accountant and the customers. If the accountant doesn’t follow your business interests or professional ethics, you may report them to their regulatory body. These are the top accounting institutions and their accompanying credentials in the UK.

ACCA – Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA or FCCA)
Chartered Accountant (ICAEW) – (ACA or FCA)
Chartered Management Accountant (CMA) (ACMA or FCMA)
Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) (ACA or FCA)
Institute of Financial Accountants (AFA, FFA)

What services accountancy firm provide in the UK?

Although some accountancy firms will offer you a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, most services are more flexible than this. Accountancy packages can vary in the services they provide. Although there are certain basic functions which most accountants will provide (and which are generally included in a monthly fee), there may also be additional services available for an extra fee. These extras usually include Self Assessment Tax Returns, Payroll and workplace pension compliance, Limited Company Accounts, Tax advice/planning, VAT Returns and MTD.

Since its introduction, the amounts of spending which may be claimed under the Annual Investment Allowance have undergone a variety of revisions. The overall spending amount was raised to £100,000 in 2010 from £50,000 in 2008. From April to December of 2012, it was cut to £25,000, following which it was successively raised again in January 2013 to a level of £250,000. From April 2014, a temporary measure was imposed that quadrupled the existing amount to £500,000 until December 2015. The idea was to bring the price back down to where it was before, which was about £25,000 at the time. However, in July 2015, the U.K. government stated that the AIA would be set at a level of £200,000 and in January 2019, it was set temporarily to £1,000,000 for the following two years.