Company Formation Stats

Our company formation subsidiary, companiesmadesimple.com reports that despite the economic malaise, the statistics for new formations  are holding up very well. Read more »

Lehmans again

An earlier posting in the wake of the Lehman’s failure criticises the insolvency sector and in particular Price Waterhouse Coopers(PwC) for its ability to rack up huge bills without proper policing.  The posting also suggested that it was almost immoral that in the light of the banking failures generally, a group of prosperous accountants were going to benefit even more.  I suggested that perhaps the insolvency industry should be government controlled.

You can imagine my joy when I read in the May edition of Accountancy that 234,578 hours have so far been billed by PWC at Lehmans.  Apparently, that works out at 9,774 days or nearly 27 years.  Yes, that’s over 230,000 hours.  Even at an average and very modest rate of £150 per hour, (and I suspect the average rate is considerably higher than that), that amounts to over £35m in fees.  In fact, the level of fees earned by them so far during its administration is £77m, equating to an average rate of £328 per hour.

Personally, I feel the whole thing stinks.  Banks and bankers are one of the major causes of the situation we find ourselves in and I don’t like the idea that another group of greedy people in the finance sector that I am a part of, should earn so much money clearing up the mess.

I still can’t see any reason why some insolvency services can’t be run by the government.  Why in theory is it any different to the CPS and the administration of legal cases.  Surely it is in the public interest for certain types of insolvency proceedings to be run by central government.  High profile insolvency administrations such as Lehmans, and other cases that are definitely in the public interest, particularly where there have been sizeable job losses, should be administered centrally.

 

HG

More on Food and VAT

Some of you will have read previously about smoothie maker Innocent and its attempt to get its crushed fruit drinks exempted from VAT. Read more »

More on Pringles

For those of you waiting with baited breath to hear the latest in the ongoing saga relating to what has now become known at the Pringles case, I can advise you that Procter and Gamble, the manufacturers of the eponymous potato snack, lost their appeal court case.  As a result, they will be forced to pay tens of millions of pounds in VAT. Read more »

Illicit Encounters

A recent report in Accountancy informed its readers that accountants have been pipped to the post by lawyers in the area of extra-marital affairs. Read more »

My take on the budget

 

So Darling has delivered his budget and we are all now trying to open our bleary eyes and come to terms with some of the smaller print. As I am currently abroad, I haven’t had a chance to read all the press releases or discuss the finer points with colleagues. Read more »

Paypal phishing scam

We have a corporate Paypal account in our subsidiary company the Made Simple Group  which is proving quite successful for both our virtual office service sites at Londonpresence.com  and Thisisyouroffice.com . Read more »

What’s in a name

I’ve got a lot to thank my parents for and I am sure (hope) that I remind them of this continually. However, there is one thing that perhaps they didn’t think through so carefully and that was the name they gave me. Whilst I myself don’t really have a problem with the name, it would seem that many others do. I have one of those names that seem to cause confusion to others. Read more »

Food and tax cases again

For those of you who have been following with bated breath my ongoing postings relating to chocolate teacakes, Pringles and their various definitions, I am pleased to be able to say that I’ve just spotted another case that I just have to bring to your attention. Read more »

Online Tax Return Statistics

A recent missive from HMRC have confirmed that over 9.5m income tax self assessment returns were issued this year and 5.8m filed on line by the 31 January deadline.  This was an increase of over 50% on the 2008 total where only 3.8m were filed online.  Staggeringly, on the peak day, 390,000 online returns were received. Read more »