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Richard Hattersley follows on from the previous episode of election talk by going through each party's manifestos and the tax promises they are pledging. The AccountingWEB team look at what’s missing and how the political parties expect to pay for these promises.

We are joined by Tom Herbert live at Xerocon, giving us the inside scoop on the latest announcements that are being made and some updates on AI.

Our special guest Mike Goldsmith, head of events at Sift, chats about the Accounting Excellence Awards. He shares what’s new, popular categories and the trends he is seeing. He offers some advice on what the judges are looking for in this year’s entries. Goldsmith also reveals an increased deadline to 28 June so get applying!

Matthew Ord rounds off the podcast with some M&A chat, looking at the uncertainties that life can bring and why having an exit strategy is so important.

This episode of No Accounting for Taste is sponsored by Comarch, a global IT business and solutions provider that optimises operational and business processes: https://www.comarch.com/

Richard Hattersley kicks off the podcast with the big news of the election. He explores what this means for accountants and tax agents and what we can expect to see over the next month as well as questioning how the political parties are going to fund their plans.

After a busy conference season for Tom Herbert, he talks about the biggest trends he has seen. These trends include AI, outsourcing and a shoutout to some new players on the scene.

Matthew Ord wraps up the episode by sharing a new report published by The Audit Reform Lab which looked into the audit performance of the Big Four. The report revealed that the Big Four auditors are failing to perform their core functions.

On another episode of No Accounting for Taste, Tom Herbert kicks off the podcast by sharing a few recent GovTech developments. These include the launching of an online voluntary NI payments tool, MTD Income Tax private beta testing going live and stories of agent accounts being frozen.

Both Richard Hattersley and Matthew Ord this week look into workplace culture and lifestyle. Richard delves into Mental Health Awareness Week (13-19 May), its importance and what needs to be done and Matthew questions whether the 9-5 life is the way to go.

With entries to the 2024 Accounting Excellence being open, Karen Kennedy, director at Kennedy Accountancy and Andrew Griggs, senior partner at Kreston Reeves join Richard Hattersley and Matthew Ord to talk all things accounting excellence.

Kennedy Accountancy won last year’s New Firm of the Year Award and Kreston Reeves picked up the award for both the Audit Team of the Year and the AccountingWEB Pride Award for ESG.

They discuss the three pillars of accounting excellence:

Client care
Kennedy and Griggs speak about how big of a focus client care is, how important it is to their firm, how things have changed and the initiatives they have both undertaken.

Processes
They continue to discuss how their firms are improving efficiency, staff development and the quality of services they provide.

Growth
Lastly, both Kennedy and Griggs explore what growth looks like for them and how they successfully keep up and achieve balance when growing.

Richard Murphy is a professor of accounting practice at Sheffield University Management School, a chartered accountant and an economic justice campaigner. He joins AccountingWEB for a new episode of No Accounting for Taste.

Discussion begins on Labour’s plans to raise an extra £5bn a year by tackling tax avoidance. Murphy offers his take on whether shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is looking in the right places and whether she is speaking to the right people. Murphy’s taxing wealth report is shared as he discusses that with certain measures, £90bn could be raised.

Talk then turns to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’s (ICAEW) annual accounts being recently published. The team alongside Murphy looks at the funds paid to the ICAEW as a result of fines and penalties given to chartered accountants, whether things have changed in the accounts and what’s next for the reserves.

After the Easter weekend, the AccountingWEB team joined for another episode of No Accounting for Taste.

Tom zeroes in on HMRC matters, exploring their new One Login service, questioning why now and what impact this will have. He also delves into recent complaints lodged against HMRC after their letter to Devonports LAS accountants contained multiple errors. The team asks how a letter like that gets posted and how are they written.

With the recent news that the Accounting Excellence Awards are now open, Richard looks back at the entries from last year and discusses the most common trends and challenges. Interested in starting your entry for Accounting Excellence? Click here.

Matt closes off the podcast by recounting an interview with AJ Chambers’ James Gosling, speaking about M&A trends. They talk about issues with succession, consolidators and firms struggling to retain talent.