AAT Public Affairs & Public Policy activities: July 2022

Every month AAT summarises some of the key Public Affairs & Public Policy activities undertaken on behalf of our members.

Below you will find some key highlights for July 2022.

If you would like any further information about any of these issues, please contact Phil Hall, AAT Head of Public Affairs & Public Policy via twitter or via email.

Congratulations to England Lionesses!

AAT congratulates the England Lionesses on their fantastic achievement winning the European Championships on 31 July 2022, especially England captain Leah Williamson who has studied AAT qualifications.

Another AAT campaign success – Help to Grow

Last week the government confirmed a number of changes to its flagship digital Help to Grow scheme in line with AAT recommendations, which we have campaigned on all year.

In February, AAT organised and submitted a joint letter to the Treasury on the subject (with ACCA, Coadec, The Entrepreneurs Network and the Forum for Private Business) and in May Adam Harper, AAT’s Director of Professional Standards, gave oral evidence to Parliament’s BEIS Select Committee on the subject. We have also engaged with dozens of politicians and officials on the subject.

AAT campaigned for the government to:

• reduce the eligibility threshold from companies employing 5 or more staff to those employing 1 or more
• expand the range of software available
• broaden the range of costs that the £5,000 of available funding can cover to include 1-2-1 training and advice.

Each of these recommendations were accepted last week.

This means that many of our 130,000 members and hundreds of thousands of their clients and employers will now be eligible to take part - and we will certainly be encouraging them to do so.

Annual YouGov Survey results

The results of AAT’s annual survey of MPs were received in July and revealed Parliamentarians views on a range of relevant topics from digital skills and FE funding to tax frameworks and more, with the results likely to be utilised in a variety of ways in the coming weeks and months.

A press release has already been issued on the highly topical matter of government assistance for small businesses, with most wanting government to do more.

Perhaps the most striking survey result was the overwhelming support for anyone providing paid-for tax and accountancy services to be appropriately qualified – 82% of MPs backed this idea. At present a third of agents do not belong to any professional body and 82% of these unaffiliated agents are completely unqualified. Given professional bodies require members to be qualified, professional body membership would largely solve this problem. These results have already been shared with all MPs and Peers, other tax and accountancy professional bodies and of course, HMRC.

AAT Tax Panel, Payroll Panel & Digital Advisory Panel

AATs three Panels meet twice a year (January and July), consist of a range of senior industry professionals as well as AAT Licensed Accountants, and discuss a range of relevant topics.

All three panels discussed mental health issues and uniformly agreed that AAT should be doing more to help members with these. Across all three panels there was a view that provision of information was not enough and that safeguarding, spotting signs, embedding support in a company culture and changing processes e.g. extending 1-2-1s to discuss any general concerns beyond the workplace, was important. There was also strong agreement that providing support was not something that should be left to healthcare professionals, that professional bodies had a role to play and that it is not only the right thing to do for employees but is beneficial to employers in terms of productivity, recruitment, retention and ultimately their bottom line.

The AAT Tax Panel gave strong backing for AAT’s position on Making Tax Digital and provided some ideas around possible tax changes to help address the cost of living crisis, especially for small businesses.

The AAT Payroll Panel discussed the role of the profession in helping companies improve recruitment and retention; debated the impact of digital technology on payroll and broadly suggested that payroll professionals were behind accountants in this regard and needed to be better educated about opportunities, compliance issues were also discussed. As an aside, last week six members of AAT’s Payroll Panel were named in the Reward Strategy 2022 list of the most influential people in the payroll profession.

The AAT Digital Advisory Panel suggested that digital ethics warranted a discrete strand in any professional body’s professional ethics guidance given their importance and the pace of change, the pace of change also dictated much more frequent reviews of ethical guidance than has traditionally been the case. A general lack of skills and understanding amongst accountants relating to cryptocurrencies was identified and that this was an increasing problem as the 2m+ UK consumers with crypto investments expected their accountants to accurately advise on tax implications; there was also a brief discussion around the AML implications of crypto and a strong recommendation that accountants quickly add cryptocurrency considerations to their AML procedures.

Parliamentary engagement

Engagement with four Parliamentarians took place in July, relating primarily to the issue of unqualified accountants.

Non-Parliamentary engagement

AAT’s Head of Public Affairs & Public Policy engaged with more than 60 external individuals and organisations in July 2022 from an Accountancy Professor in Toronto, Canada to a Daily Telegraph journalist in London, from AAT members in Devon and Dorset to Worcester and West Sussex and many, many more.

AAT consultations, calls for evidence & inquiry responses

A comprehensive response to the HMRC consultation on Repayment Agents was submitted and is available on the AAT Policy page. Alternatively, a summary is available in this helpful AAT Comment article on the same subject.

If you would like more information about any of the above, public affairs activities in general, previous copies of the monthly round-up or think Phil might be able to help your work in any way, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Keep up to date with AAT's Public Affairs activities on Twitter at: @PhilHall2021.